THE FLORIDA OR CHESTRA | 2017-2018 43
it a good time to start looking for a quiet haven.
A few years before, Rachmaninoff had been overwhelmed by
an inspired performance of Die Meistersinger he heard at the
Dresden Opera. The memory of that evening and the aura
of dignity and repose exuded by the city had remained with
him, and Dresden, at that time in his life, seemed like a good
place to be. The atmosphere in Dresden was so conducive to
composition that within a few months of his arrival he was
working on the Second Symphony, First Piano Sonata, Op.
6 Russian folk songs and the symphonic poem The Isle of
the Dead. The Second Symphony was unanimously cheered
when it was premiered under the composer’s direction in St.
Petersburg on January 26, 1908.
What To Listen For
Philip Hale, writing of the American renown that has
attached itself to Rachmaninoff’s works in general and to
the Second Symphony in particular, stated, “The reasons
for the popularity of the Symphony are not far to seek. The
themes are eminently melodious, and some of them are of
singular beauty; there is rich coloring; there are beautiful
nuances in color; there is impressive sonority; there are
frequent and sharp contrasts in sentiment, rhythm and
expression; there is stirring vitality.” Underlying these
attractive external qualities is Rachmaninoff’s philosophy
of the emotional, communicative powers of music. He
stated, “Music should express the sum total of a composer’s
experiences.” Once asked specifically about the nature of
music, he replied, “What is music? How can one define it?
Music is a calm moonlit night, a rustling of summer foliage.
Music is the distant peal of bells at eventide. Music is born
only of the heart and it appeals to the heart. It is love. The
sister of music is poetry and the mother — sorrow!” It is
easy, as has been frequently demonstrated, to ridicule
such an open-hearted theory, but this Second Symphony
generates much warmth, joy, and true sentiment, and can
move many listeners more deeply than other pieces of
more rigorous intellectual accomplishment.
The majestic scale of the Symphony is established at the
outset by a slow, brooding introduction. The low strings
and then the violins give out a fragmentary theme which
generates much of the material for the entire work. A
smooth transition to a faster tempo signals the arrival of the
main theme, an extended and quickened transformation of
the basses’ opening motive. The expressive second theme
enters in the woodwinds. The development deals with the
vigorous main theme to such an extent that the beginning
of the formal recapitulation is engulfed by its surging
sweep. The lovely second theme reappears as expected,
again in the woodwinds. The coda resumes the energetic
mood of the development to build to the fine climax which
ends the movement.
The second movement is the most nimble essay to be found
in Rachmaninoff’s orchestral works. After two preparatory
measures, the horns hurl forth the main theme, which
bears more than a passing resemblance to the Dies Irae,
the ancient chant from the Roman Catholic Mass for the
Dead that haunted the composer for many years. The
vital nature of the music, however, does not support any
morbid interpretation. Eventually, the rhythmic bustle
is suppressed and finally silenced to make way for the
movement’s central section, whose skipping lines embody
some of Rachmaninoff’s best fugal writing. Almost as if by
magic, the opening scherzo returns amid a full-throated cry
from the brass. Once again, this quiets and the movement
ends on a note of considerable mystery.
The rapturous third movement, wrote Patrick Piggott, “is as
romantic as any music in the orchestral repertory — if by
romantic we mean the expression, through lyrical melody
and richly chromatic harmony, of a sentiment which can
only be described as love.” This is music of heightened
passion that resembles nothing so much as an ecstatic
operatic love scene. Alternating with the joyous principal
melody is an important theme from the first movement,
heard prominently in the central portion and the coda of
this movement.
The finale bursts forth in the whirling dance rhythm of
an Italian tarantella. The propulsive urgency subsides to
allow another of Rachmaninoff’s wonderful, sweeping
melodic inspirations to enter. A development of the
tarantella motives follows, into which are embroidered
thematic reminiscences from each of the three preceding
movements. The several elements of the finale are
gathered together in the closing pages to produce the rich
and sonorous tapestry appropriate for the life-affirming
conclusion of this grand and stirring Symphony.
© 2017 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
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Program Notes