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| ''']''''s '''Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44''' premiered on ] ], with ] conducting the ]. The symphony does not follow the traditional four movement pattern. It is approximately forty minutes long. | ''']''''s '''Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44''' premiered on ] ], with ] conducting the ]. The symphony does not follow the traditional four movement pattern and instead contains only three movements. It is approximately forty minutes long. | ||
| ==Background== | ==Background== | ||
| ⚫ | Rachmaninoff composed his Third Symphony between June 1935 and June 1936, a few years after composing his ] and the ], before which he had not composed for quite some years). He composed it while being at ] he built on ] in ]. | ||
| The national chaos – continual strikes, changes of government, and growing popular resentment to the ] - which affected ] and culminated in the ] of ] ], drove Rachmaninov to apply for a ] to leave the country. While he waited for it to be granted he re-wrote his First Piano Concerto. This was to be the last music he wrote on Russian soil, for in December he was eventually allowed to leave, going with his family first to ], then ] and finally, in ] ], arriving in the ] where he was to live for the remainder of his days. He may have lost all his belongings and money when he fled Russia, but he also seemed to lose his will to compose and from the day he arrived in America to the day of his death 25 years later, he wrote just four orchestral works – the ], the ], the ] and his Third Symphony. | |||
| Symphonies were tricky things for Rachmaninov. His First, premièred in ] in ], was such a catastrophic disaster that he contemplated both suicide and abandoning composing altogether. In ] when he decided to write his Second he hid himself away in the ] city of ], confessing to "a mood of anguish, apathy and disgust at what I've been doing in my work". However that Symphony was a huge success and earned him the 20,000 ] ] prize. The Third was written in exile by a composer desperately homesick but resigned never to be able to return home; as one commentator has put it, Rachmaninov "had come to terms with his new lot in life yet was still hankering inconsolably for the old." Little wonder then that the Third Symphony has been described as the "saddest piece of music Rachmaninov ever wrote." It was premièred on November 6 1936 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and, like the First, was not well received. This time Rachmaninov was accused of being an "anachronism – played out – saying only things he had said before but this time anaemically". The ]-based ] described it cruelly as, "A palace without royalty. Rachmaninov still gives parties on the grand scale but no guests turn up." | |||
| ⚫ | Rachmaninoff composed his Third Symphony between |
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| ==Movements== | ==Movements== | ||
| This symphony consists of three movements: | |||
| # Lento - Allegro moderato - Allegro | # Lento - Allegro moderato - Allegro | ||
| # Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro vivace | # Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro vivace | ||
| # Allegro - Allegro vivace - Allegro (Tempo primo) - Allegretto - Allegro vivace. | # Allegro - Allegro vivace - Allegro (Tempo primo) - Allegretto - Allegro vivace. | ||
| ===1st Movement=== | |||
| Nostalgia and sadness permeate the whispered opening of this movement but then the orchestra shrugs off this mood of introspection and launches into a brave, dramatic march interrupted by the return of the haunting opening theme. This conflict between nostalgia and bravado, which is at the very root of the Symphony, is encapsulated in a rich, yearning theme from the ]. This frequently works itself up to a climax which invariably ends on a deflationary note. The movement ends, as it began, in hushed tones, leaving the way open for a sorrowful horn solo answered by a solitary violin which introduces the 2nd movement. | |||
| ===2nd Movement=== | |||
| This movement suggests that Rachmaninov is here recapturing the Russian ] of his youth, and certainly the pastoral air is heightened by bird-like trillings which surround the movement's delicate and nostalgic melodies. In the middle of the movement there is a sudden change of mood and speed and the music launches into an invigorating and energetic march which only serves to make the return of the pastoral music even more poignant and heart-wrenching. | |||
| ===3rd Movement=== | |||
| "Bravado" is the key word for the exuberant opening of this movement. Here the mood is almost forced, rather too impetuous for its own good, and when it all breaks out into a hyperactive fugue its eventual collapse into a state of nostalgic inertia seems inevitable. But in the end it is the mood of bravado which brings the Symphony to its exciting if slightly ambiguous conclusion. | |||
| ==Selected Recordings== | ==Selected Recordings== | ||
Revision as of 15:58, 10 January 2008
Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 premiered on November 6 1936, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. The symphony does not follow the traditional four movement pattern and instead contains only three movements. It is approximately forty minutes long.
Background
Rachmaninoff composed his Third Symphony between June 1935 and June 1936, a few years after composing his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli, before which he had not composed for quite some years). He composed it while being at Villa Senar he built on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.
Movements
- Lento - Allegro moderato - Allegro
- Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro vivace
- Allegro - Allegro vivace - Allegro (Tempo primo) - Allegretto - Allegro vivace.
Selected Recordings
- Sergei Rachmaninoff conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded in 1939.
- David Zinman conducting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, recorded May 1994.
References
- Mann, William. CD pamphlet: "Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3, The Rock -- Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra / Paavo Berglund". RCA Victor. Recorded June 20-22, 1988, in Philharmonic Hall, Stockholm.
External links
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