In addition to his numerous compositions for the piano and for orchestra, Sergei Rachmaninoff was also a prolific songwriter. His 14 songs Op. 34, composed in 1912, were written with specific singers in mind and show his gift for beautiful melody. The first 13 were settings of poems by Alexander Pushkin and other Russian poets, but No.14 was wordless, meant as a glorification of the human voice. Its lush serpentine melody is characteristic of Rachmaninoff’s symphonic slow movements and shows how deeply steeped he was in the late Romantic tradition, from which he never veered. Vocalise was such a stunning success that the composer immediately transcribed it for solo violin, solo cello, and subsequently for orchestra, the form in which it is most commonly heard today. Surprisingly, Rachmaninoff never made a piano arrangement of the Vocalise. 

Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
Wordpros@mindspring.com
www.wordprosmusic.com