Program notes for sTRINGS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
By Emily Reese

Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14
Sergei Rachmaninoff
b. March 20/April 1, 1873; Oneg, Russia
d. March 28, 1943; Beverly Hills, Calif.
Premiered January 1916

Of the fourteen songs of Rachmaninoff’s Op. 34, all but two are dedicated to vocalists. In 1912, Rachmaninoff started searching for text he could set to songs. He had already written one song of what he envisioned as a set, and he needed material for the rest. The composer received help from a new friend, Marietta Shaginian. Shaginian herself was an Armenian poet, and Rachmaninoff asked her to recommend text. He consequently used many of her suggestions for his Op. 34, incorporating the poems of Polonsky, Maykof, Korinfsky, Pushkin, and other Russian Romantics.

Rachmaninoff wrote 12 more of the songs in his estate near Tambov, Russia, in 1912, but the 14th and final Vocalise wasn’t written until three years later in Moscow. Dedicated to coloratura soprano Antonina Nezdanova, the Vocalise has no words. As a result, the song has been transcribed for and recorded on virtually every traditional instrument, including the not-so-traditional theramin.

Soprano Nezdanova told Rachmaninoff she wished Vocalise had text, to which he replied, “What need is there of words, when you will be able to convey everything better and more expressively than anyone could with words by your voice and interpretation?”

Vocalise is easily the most famous and popular of the 14 songs. Following the successful premiere in 1916, Rachmaninoff arranged a version for voice and orchestra, then one for just orchestra, perhaps setting the precedent for the hundreds of arrangements in existence today.


Serenade in C Major, Op. 48
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
b. April 25/May 7, 1840; Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka province, Russia
d. October 25/November 5, 1893; St. Petersburg
Premiered St. Petersburg, October 18/30, 1880

Three years had passed since the swift disintegration of Tchaikovsky’s short marriage, his nervous breakdown, and his departure from the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky biographer David Brown says the composer became a recluse of sorts in the years after that “Crisis Year” of 1877. Tchaikovsky spent much of his time taking walks, reading, and composing.

The Serenade for strings came to Tchaikovsky in 1880, during a period of relative calm in his life. For most of the year, Tchaikovsky was in Kamenka, Ukraine, where he wrote the Serenade. Tchaikovsky then turned to another project, completing the 1812 Overture in just one week.

“The (1812) overture will be very showy and noisy, but will have no artistic merit because I wrote it without warmth and without love. But the Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from inner compulsion. This piece is from the heart, and so I venture to say it does not lack artistic worth,” he wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck.

Often regarded as the best work he wrote, Tchaikovsky wove themes and motives throughout each of the four movements, uniting them with compositional maturity he had vaguely demonstrated in his prior works. His friends at the Conservatory loved the Serenade so much that they gave him a surprise private performance in December of 1880. The true premiere was 10 months later; the Valse movement was encored. Tchaikovsky’s Serenade was a momentous success.


Moz-Art à la Haydn
Alfred Schnittke
b. November 24, 1934; Engels, Russia
d. August 3, 1998; Hamburg, Germany
Premiered December 31, 1976, in Moscow

Alfred Schnittke was born in Russia to German parents. His first formal training took place in Vienna in the mid-1940s, but he eventually ended up at the Moscow Conservatory a decade later. Although the compositional style of his works reflects his German and Russian heritage, he is considered a Russian composer.

Schnittke was fascinated with a piece written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, called Music for a Pantomime, K. 446. The work exists only in fragments, and Schnittke layers and blends those fragments in Moz-Art à la Haydn.

The title of the piece is quite descriptive of the work itself; an obvious nod to the compositional fragments Schnittke borrowed from Mozart. As for the remainder of the title, “à la Haydn,” Schnittke imitates the somewhat legendary tale of Haydn’s Farewell Symphony. In Haydn’s Farewell, members of the orchestra leave the stage one at a time until only two violinists are left.

Schnittke’s work, scored for two violins and 11 strings, begins in darkness. The players improvise on the fragments of Mozart’s Pantomime as the lights come up. As the piece ends, darkness returns, and players individually leave the stage until the conductor is left alone.


Piano Concerto No. 1 for piano, trumpet and strings in C minor, Op. 35
Dmitry Shostakovich
b. September 12/25, 1906; St. Petersburg
d. August 9, 1975; Moscow
Premiered October 15, 1933, with Fritz Stiedry leading the Leningrad Philharmonic

For Shostakovich, things were going as well as could be expected, considering it was the early 1930s in the Soviet Union. His first official fall from grace wouldn’t happen until 1936, and although the years leading up to that time brought criticism from composers’ unions and other government organizations, he was working, and making a living at that. By late 1932, Shostakovich finished his second opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The opera was a huge success critically and publicly, and ran for nearly 200 performances.

Leading up to 1933, Shostakovich spent much compositional time on operas The Nose and Lady Macbeth, and wrote numerous film scores. The following year, he chose to focus on chamber and solo works, writing his 24 Preludes and Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor.

Shostakovich said the piano concerto was his “first attempt at filling an important gap in Soviet instrumental music, which lacks full-scale concerto-type works,” and while his “attempt” was unconventional at best, it did squeeze its way into a genre of Soviet classical works otherwise dominated by Sergey Prokofiev. Shostakovich scored the concerto unusually; strings and a single trumpet accompany the piano. He wrote the trumpet part with Alexander Nikolayevich Schmidt in mind, the principal trumpeter for the Leningrad Symphony. The concerto also has four movements, rather than the traditional three.

The first movement is in Sonata form, establishing a dialog quite quickly between piano and trumpet. The Lento movement waltz is a fine example of the composer’s melodic touch, with plenty of opportunities for the pianist and orchestra to display their lyricism. The trumpet makes a muted entrance toward the end; the entrance is more nostalgic than declamatory. The Moderato serves more as an introduction to the fourth, if only because of its brevity. The Allegro con Brio is a rondo, with piano, trumpet and strings returning to their flashy and virtuosic sounds of the first movement. Russian dances weave their way in and out of the rondo.

At the premiere, Shostakovich appeared as pianist. He staged Schmidt next to him, as if sharing the spotlight with the trumpeter. Reviews were favorable, further establishing Shostakovich as the youngest leading Soviet composer of the time.