One of Rachmaninoff’s late works was the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, composed in 1934. The work is a set of variations based on the 24th Caprice from Niccoló Paganini’s Caprices for Violin Solo, Op. 1. This Caprice – itself a set of bravura variations – has also served such diverse composers as Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Schnittke and Lutoslawski. Rachmaninoff played the premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Baltimore under the baton of Leopold Stokowski.
In the Rhapsody, Rachmaninoff reveals an inventiveness – and even an uncharacteristic sense of humor. While Paganini’s variations concentrate on virtuosic pyrotechnics, Rachmaninoff imbues the little tune with a wide array of clever harmonizations, eccentric rhythms and changing moods. But however much the variation appears to stray from the theme, the underlying harmonic structure remains constant.
The piece opens with an introduction that hints at the theme to come, followed by the first variation (which he labeled “precedente”), a skeletal version of the theme itself, using only the first note of each of Paganini’s measures – Beethoven had used a similar device to open the set of variations in the Finale of the Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), a stunningly novel approach for the time. Only afterwards does Rachmaninoff present the theme in full, following it with 23 more variations and a mischievous two-measure coda. The Variations give the pianist the same kind of virtuosic workout as its model did for showman Paganini.
Rachmaninoff provides two surprises that save the work from unrelenting repetitiveness so common with long sets of variations. One is in Variation 7 with the appearance of a second theme, the Dies irae chant from the Catholic Mass for the Dead that reminds mourners of the terrors of the Day of Judgment. It is a theme that recurs frequently in Rachmaninoff’s music, usually in the most somber sections, but here it has a decidedly tongue-in-cheek flavor: While the piano plays the Dies irae, the orchestra continues to play the Paganini theme, with which it conveniently harmonizes perfectly. The Dies irae recurs in later variations, but always balanced by the main theme and never imposing its lugubrious atmosphere on the composition.
The second highlight occurs in Variation 18. Nearly all of Rachmaninoff’s music is in minor keys. Yet, “compelled” by tradition to compose at least one variation in the opposite mode, he accentuated the contrast by not only composing Variation 18 in the major mode, but inverting the theme as well.
Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
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