Boris Giltburg
Picture: Boris Giltburg
This weblog visits a brand new album scheduled for launch on April 14 that options works for piano and orchestra by Sergei Rachmaninov (2023 marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his start). The solo pianist is Boris Giltburg, a seasoned Naxos artist famous not just for his excellent musicianship and technical finesse (witness the quite a few glowing evaluations he unfailingly receives), but additionally for his presentation abilities in bringing to life the works he performs, each on social media and, as is the case with this newest album, his manufacturing of the album’s booklet notes, which mirror authority and perception. {The catalogue} variety of the discharge is 8.574528.
Vassily Sinaisky
Picture: Jesper Lindgren
I’ll be dipping into Boris’ observations concerning the three works on this programme: Rachmaninov’s First and Fourth Piano Concertos, and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. That latter work, along with Rachmaninov’s Second and Third Piano Concertos, obtain considerably extra consideration in recording studios and live performance halls than the First and Fourth Concertos; however it will come as no shock if this glorious recording by Boris (along with the Brussels Philharmonic beneath conductor Vassily Sinaisky) proceeds to considerably increase the stature of these perceived poor relations.
Rachmaninov accomplished his First Piano Concerto when he was barely 18 years previous, giving the primary efficiency a yr later. Though it acquired additional performances on this authentic type, it clearly weighed on Rachmaninov’s thoughts that the rating was in want of some consideration, which it lastly acquired in his 1917 revision, the one usually performed these days. Rachmaninov pulled no punches on himself when considering the matter, writing to a good friend in 1908:
Sergei Rachmaninov
© HNH Worldwide
“Now tomorrow I’m planning to take up my First Concerto and look by it, after which resolve how a lot toil and time a brand new model would take, and whether or not it’s value bothering with in any respect. I’m so usually requested about this Concerto, and this Concerto is so horrible in its present type – that is the principle factor – that I’d like to cope with it and, if potential, deliver all the things in it into a good form. Although, in fact, a lot must be written anew, because the orchestration is even worse than the music. So, tomorrow I’ll resolve this query, and I wish to resolve it positively.”
Boris’ observations concerning the revised model embody the next:
“Evaluating the 2 variations is fascinating, and reveals Rachmaninov’s super compositional progress within the intervening years. The melodies are similar, however virtually nothing else stays from the unique! … Rachmaninov simplified and clarified the construction, reducing a number of sections. He reworked the orchestration, remaining throughout the sound world of the unique, however filling it with new colors and including a lot wanted transparency… The finale was mainly composed anew – many of the muscular, spiky, fiery music of the outer sections didn’t exist within the authentic model.”
Let’s put these feedback into context by listening to a few extracts. First, the opening of the contemplative second motion.
II. [Andante]
And secondly, the opening stretch of the finale.
Finale: Allegro vivace
Rachmaninov had a good harder time establishing the Fourth Piano Concerto as a piece worthy of getting into his corridor of fame. First carried out in Philadelphia in the USA in 1927, it was under no circumstances nicely acquired by viewers and critics alike, niggles together with the size of the piece and the truth that the orchestra was omnipresent. Sadly, success evaded the work all through Rachmaninov’s lifetime. The revisions made earlier than the work’s publication in 1928 did little to enhance its fortunes, so Rachmaninov withdrew the work till his closing revision of the work in 1941. Boris Giltburg writes:
“I’m very completely happy to see it begin coming into its personal lately. For me it occupies a singular place in Rachmaninov’s output, with a musical ‘flavour’ in contrast to any of his different works … From the three variations, the perfect in my eyes is the final – the leanest and most targeted. I don’t contemplate the cruel important response to the unique model to be justified, however I do really feel the modifications made by Rachmaninov improved the concerto … I’d name this concerto, for an absence of a greater phrase, rhapsodic – a fascinating story, freely-narrated, with a considerably vaguely outlined define, whereby the expertise of listening is concurrently an interesting expertise of discovering the form of the work we’re listening to.”
In gentle of that commentary, right here’s how the central part of the primary motion unfolds.
I. Allegro vivace (alla breve)
Boris’ feedback concerning the finale embody the next:
“The reworked finale is essentially the most fragmented motion of the three … Rachmaninov writes a chronic coda, which incorporates three threads loosely linking the finale with the primary motion. First, the very opening of the concerto appears to make a return. Then, the coda builds as much as a climax which mirrors that of the primary motion – maybe crucial hyperlink, as these two climaxes tower over the concerto like mountain peaks, echoing one another throughout a big divide. And eventually, the concluding passages within the piano are constructed on two sequences of descending scales, to match the ascending scale motif which opened the concerto, earlier than the triumphant G main end.”
We choose up his efficiency of the finale within the strategy to that allusion to the concerto’s opening.
III. Allegro vivace
Lastly to the work that’s a piano concerto in all however title – Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, written in 1934, and reflecting a happier interval within the composer’s life, when the need to compose was robust and the tug of his Russian homeland roots assuaged. Boris feedback:
“It’s a blast of a chunk, its electrifying rhythmical vitality working alongside the irresistible catchiness of the supply materials – Niccolò Paganini’s well-known Caprice No. 24 for violin solo. The Rhapsody is in reality a set of 24 variations on Paganini’s theme, with the briefest of introductions, and with the primary variation previous the theme: it outlines the theme’s salient notes, like a melody’s skeleton with none connecting materials.”
Right here’s that opening part comprising the introduction, first variation, the theme, and variations 2–4.
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, opening part
“From there on, Rachmaninov takes us on a white-knuckle trip, with an underlying present of hazard all through: as if one thing darkish and even demonic lurked simply outdoors the nook of our eye. And but, the overriding sense of the music is enjoyable – to which I attribute a major a part of the Rhapsody’s common success.”
At Variation 7, Rachmaninov introduces a second theme – the Dies irae mediaeval chant with which Rachmaninov was obsessed all through his profession.
Variations 7, 8 and 9
Earlier than ploughing onwards to an exciting (and witty) conclusion, there’s one second of repose – the celebrated Variation 18, the longest within the set, with which we finish this weblog. Boris concludes the commentary:
“The fantastic Variation XVIII [is] ingeniously derived from the inversion of Paganini’s theme. ‘This one is for my agent’, Rachmaninov mentioned, half-jokingly, but when we disregard for a second the kitschy baggage which this variation (considerably sadly) carries upon its again, we are going to discover one of the lovely, tender and soul-stirring moments to have ever come from Rachmaninov’s thoughts and coronary heart. Surrounded by the unsentimental muscularity of the Rhapsody, the variation shines even brighter – each in itself, and as a throwback to a unique period, bathed in reminiscence’s golden gentle.”
Variation 18
(This final audio extract can be out there to listen to and obtain on a number of streaming platforms. Particulars could also be discovered by following this hyperlink.)
8.573629
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 – Études-tableaux, Op. 33
Boris Giltburg • Royal Scottish Nationwide Orchestra • Carlos Miguel Prieto
DISCOVER
8.573630
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 – Variations on a Theme of Corelli
Boris Giltburg • Royal Scottish Nationwide Orchestra • Carlos Miguel Prieto
DISCOVER
