During the winter of 1906-07, Sergei Rachmaninoff ran into a Russian acquaintance on the sidewalks of Dresden and exclaimed with a smile, “I have escaped from my friends. Please don’t give me away!” In constant demand in Moscow professionally and socially, Rachmaninoff’s need for space was becoming acute. So, in the fall of 1906, the composer and his wife and daughter left Moscow and headed west, settling in Dresden. The move quickly paid off. He immediately began to write music—including his return to the symphonic genre for the first time since the harsh reception of his first symphony. Beginning work in October 1906, shortly after arriving in Dresden, Rachmaninoff completed the first draft of his Symphony No. 2 in E Minor on New Year's Day, 1907, and conducted the premiere in St. Petersburg on January 26, 1908. The work was a huge success, erasing any stigma of failure the First Symphony may have created.

Written in the traditional four movements, the symphony opens with a brooding, dramatic Largo for the cellos and basses, providing the melodic germ for the movement’s first theme, introduced by the first and second violins. A solo clarinet leads to the second theme, a sighing figure in the woodwinds, followed by soaring violins. A bold horn melody announces the following movement, a lively scherzo marked Allegro molto infused with a Russian folk spirit. From the highly expressive Adagio bursts the energetic finale, marked Allegro vivace. Closely associated with the Neapolitan tarantella, the dominant rhythmic theme takes the symphony to a thrilling close. 

—Jennifer More, ©2023