Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in Semyonovo, Russia, on April 1, 1873, and died in Beverly Hills, California, on March 28, 1943. The first performance of the Second Piano Concerto took place in Moscow, Russia, on November 9, 1901, with the composer as soloist and Alexander Siloti conducting the Moscow Philharmonic Society. In addition to the solo piano, the Concerto No. 2 is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-three minutes.
When Sergei Rachmaninoff completed his First Symphony in August of 1895, he was 22, and brimming with all the confidence of youth. “I imagined that there was nothing I could not do and had great hopes for the future,” he later recalled. Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony received its premiere in St. Petersburg on March 15, 1897, with composer Alexander Glazunov conducting. The performance was a disaster, and immediately after the final notes sounded, Rachmaninoff “fled, horrified, into the street.”
While Rachmaninoff was able to escape the confines of the theater, he still had to face the wrath of the critics. Russian composer César Cui wrote in the St. Petersburg News:
If there were a conservatory in Hell, if one of its many talented students were instructed to write a programme symphony on the “Seven Plagues of Egypt,” and if he were to compose a symphony like Mr. Rachmaninoff’s, then he would have fulfilled his task brilliantly and would delight the inhabitants of Hell.
Rachmaninoff was devastated by this disastrous turn of events. He lapsed into a deep depression:
Half my days were spent lying on a couch and sighing over my ruined life. My only occupation consisted of a few piano lessons which I was forced to give in order to keep myself alive. This condition, which was as tiresome for myself as for those about me, lasted more than a year. I did not live; I vegetated, idle and hopeless. The thought of spending my life as a piano-teacher gave me cold shudders. But what other activity was there left for me?
Rachmaninoff’s friends were alarmed by his profound depression and tried all forms of cures to buoy his spirits. Finally, they convinced Rachmaninoff to consult Dr. Nikolai Dahl, a doctor who had gained some prominence for his employment of suggestion and auto-suggestion. Between January and April of 1900, Rachmaninoff visited Dr. Dahl on a daily basis.
Rachmaninoff told Dahl that he had promised to compose a piano concerto. Dr. Dahl set about treating his patient:
I heard the same hypnotic formula repeated day after day while I lay half asleep in the armchair in Dr. Dahl’s study. “You will begin to write your Concerto...You will work with great facility...The Concerto will be of an excellent quality...” It was always the same, without interruption. Although it may sound incredible, this cure really helped me. Already at the beginning of the summer I began again to compose. The material grew in bulk, and new musical ideas began to stir within me—far more than I needed for my Concerto.
Rachmaninoff completed the final two movements of his Second Piano Concerto in the autumn of 1900 and performed them at a Moscow charity concert on October 14. Rachmaninoff added the opening movement in the spring of the following year and appeared as soloist in the November 9, 1901 premiere of the entire Second Concerto. The composer readily acknowledged Dr. Dahl’s role in the creation of one of the most popular works of the 20th century, and dedicated the Concerto to him.
The Concerto is in three movements. The first (Moderato) opens with a series of tolling chords by the soloist, leading to the surging first principal melody, marked con passione. The second movement (Adagio sostenuto) is a fantasia on a lovely theme, related to a melody in the Concerto’s opening Moderato. The finale (Allegro scherzando) is based upon two themes; the second, one of Rachmaninoff’s most beloved. That theme makes a glorious return in the Concerto’s closing measures.
program notes by Ken Meltzer
