Written by Anna Vorhes

Born
April 1, 1873, Semyonovo, Russia

Died
March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, CA

Duration
24 minutes

Composed
July 3 - August 18, 1934

World Premiere
November 7 1934, at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, Maryland, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski with the composer at the piano.

Instrumentation
three flutes, one doubling piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba timpani, snare drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, glockenspiel, harp, strings

Something to listen for
This work comes from the last few years of Rachmaninoff's life, and his skills were at their peak. This set of variations was built on two themes, one from Paganini and the other from Gregorian Chant. It has a structure that recalls the construction methods of a concerto, with a fast section, then a slow section, and finally another fast section. Few people can count the twenty-four variations as the work is performed becuase they do not follow a pattern of similar mength and ways of exploring sound that a classical era set of variations would. So, what do we listen for? The virtuosic piano skills required lead the list. The methods used to vary the sound throughout the orchestra are intriguing. One variation requires the strings to turn their bows upside down and play with the wood. And the way the Dies irae is woven into the mix, starting with the seventh variation, is definitely worth listening for.  This chant is a favorite of many composers, often used to indicate the presence of something supernatural at the least and often evil.  As a twenty-first century listener, the eighteenth variation has the familiarity of having been borrowed for popular use in music, in film, and in other media which makes this entire work have a sense of familiarity.

Program Notes

Rachmaninoff's life changed radically after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.  He had been building a career as a world-famous pianist and composer, always holding his home base in Russa.  His family estate was destroyed in the revolution, and he fled the country using a concert in Sweden as the mechanism to escape.  His family followed quickly.  The economic impact of losing his home base changed the composer's life, and he wrote very little from 1917 until the time the family built a new refuge in Switzerland in the early 1930s.  Instead, Rachmaninoff undertook a grueling performance schedule as a conductor and piano soloist.  Finally, after settling in his new estate, in 1934 he offers this set of variations, showing all the skills of his piano virtuosity.

For this work, Rachmaninoff used as inspiration a set of violin pieces written by Nicolo Paganini.  Written from 1801-1087, 24 Caprices for violin had started the revolution in violin performance that increased the skill level of the usual violinist.  The Caprices intrigued a number of composers including Brahms and Liszt and others.

The music of the Caprices is captivating and progressive for a musician hoping to increase their skills.  Probably the most intriguing part of this whole discussion was the connection to the Faust legend retold by Goethe during Paganini's lifetime.  The original German legend was about an alchemist who sold his soul to the devil to get the formula to tourn lead to gold.  With Paganini coming on the scene with his slender build, pale complexion, and incredible violin skills, rumors started that perhaps he had sold his soul to obtain his wondrous skills.  The rumors were strong enough that the Catholic Church would not allow Paganini to be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

The rumor was extended to the skills of other players over the nineteenth century.  Liszt was one of the other performers who was rumored to have made the same bargain.

By the time Rachmaninoff became popular, the rumors had gone out of fashion.  There is perhaps a hint of the idea in the use of the Dies irae as a secondary melody in Rachmaninoff's work. It was no longer the titillating gossip it had been a century earlier.

Rachmaninoff begins the Rhapsody with the skeleton of the melody of the final Caprice, No. 24, that some listeners find analogous to the way Beethoven began the Eroica.  The actual theme follows, and we are off.  The first six variations are treatments of the original theme.  At the end of the sixth variations there comes a more reverent treatment of the theme as there is a pause leading to the seventh variation.  With the seventh variation, the Dies irae sneaks in to add to the conversation.  Listeners have to be especially attentive to hear it.  The next few variations are rather menacing, but that changes with the cadenza-like character of variation eleven.  Variations twelve through eighteen Rachmaninoff called the "love variations" when he was working on a ballet project.  The fifteenth variation shows a bit of jazz influence, acknowledging the style of Art Tatum.  The eighteenth variation is the most well known due to its use in various contexts outside the concert hall.  You may have a bit of a question about how this relates to the other presentation of the meldoy since it sounds so different.  Rachmaninoff transposes the variation to a higher key, and then inverts the whole theme.  For musicans this means that the meldoy is upside down.  When it originally went down, now it goes up, and when it went up now it goes down.  The last six variations become increasingly more virtuosic for the pinaist.  The ending is a bit surprising.  Pianist Jon Kimura Parker says Rachmaninoff ends with a "wink and a question mark".  

Soon after the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini premiered, choreographer Mikhail Fokine approached Rachmaninoff about using the work to create a new ballet they would call Paganini.  The premise was about Paganini's rumored deal with the devil.  Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini has remained a favorite of virtuoso pianists and their audiences since it was written.