Rachmaninov

by Robert Matthew-Walker

  These happenings did little to disturb the summer at Ivanovka, a principal event of which was the delivery of Rachmaninoff’s first car. Motor vehicles outside the larger Russian cities were extremely rare and, after one or two teething troubles, Rachmaninoff soon got a big kick out of driving it himself, even though he engaged a chauffeur. He found the exhilaration of motoring in the country with the hood down (it was a large — and expensive — coupé) a great relaxation, and a photograph taken at the time shows the proud owner at the wheel with the chauffeur (correctly uniformed, of course) at his side.

  The new season marked a number of significant events: the Bolshoi revived Rachmaninoff’s Francesca da Rimini, without The Miserly Knight, but the revival did not establish a repertory place for the work (it was not revived at the Bolshoi until 1956). Rachmaninoff’s season opened on October 6th/19th with a Moscow Philharmonic Concert, but he cancelled a St Petersburg concert to play Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto, owing to stiffness in his fingers. His conducting was not affected, even though it was strenuous, until the last date which he also cancelled, suffering from overwork and exhaustion. He had given eleven orchestral concerts in two months, and their preparation, to say nothing of the worsening political situation, fatigued him. The running battle in the press also distressed him. As before, at the Bolshoi season of 1905-06, Rachmaninoff felt the need to get away: the concert season had proved almost too much (the preparation for his performances of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique especially). He needed rest and time to compose, and he wrote to Marietta Shaginian on November 12th/25th replying to her complaint he had ignored her:

  … If I do not answer your letters promptly, it is only because of my large correspondence and all sorts of business … I am just tired, very tired, and I live on my last ounces of strength. At the concert yesterday, for the first time in my life, on one of the fermate I forgot what to do next and to the great distress of the whole orchestra I tried for a long time to remember what was coming next. I wish to God I could leave soon …

  To an artist of Rachmaninoff’s integrity, such a lapse was unpardonable: he took his family abroad, after his last-but-one orchestral concert on December 1st/9th. They left on December 5th/18th, and stayed a week in Berlin, before deciding to leave for Switzerland, where they spent a month. Rachmaninoff recovered his strength so much so that when they travelled on to Rome he wrote to Marietta on March 23rd saying he was working very hard, but another serious worry pushed all thoughts of composition aside. As on their previous Italian trip, illness struck again. Both daughters went down with typhoid, and Rachmaninoff, alarmed at their condition, took them back to Berlin for treatment: Tatiana was admitted to hospital, on the danger list. After some time, both children improved sufficiently for them to travel to Ivanovka, where they recovered completely.

  Back at his summer home, Rachmaninoff was able to complete the work begun in Rome, curiously enough in the same flat on the Piazza di Spagna that Modest Tchaikovsky once occupied. This was his ‘choral symphony’ (not numbered, and not so called by Rachmaninoff), for soloists, chorus and orchestra: The Bells, Opus 35 to a Russian translation by Balmont of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem. The impetus for the choral work had come, anonymously, from a young pupil of Mikhail Bukinik, a cellist Maria Danilova, an admirer of Rachmaninoff. The four movements of The Bells were completed in full score on July 27th/August 9th, and dedicated to “my friend Willem Mengelberg and his orchestra in Amsterdam”, but it was Rachmaninoff himself, not Mengelberg, who conducted the first performance, in St Petersburg on November 30th/December 13th, with Popova, Alexandrov and Andreyev as soloists, with the Chorus of the Maryinsky Theatre, after which he embarked on an English tour.

  The Bells was Rachmaninoff’s favourite work. It is the biggest of his choral-orchestral works, scored for a very large orchestra (including quadruple woodwind, six horns, much percussion with piano, harp, celesta and optional organ). The thematic integration is on a very high level and the imaginative treatment of the text gives each movement a clearly defined character. Poe’s verses formally parallel a four-movement symphony, and also constitute a mirror of life: the first movement, “The Silver Sleigh Bells” is an evocation of childhood; the second, “The Mellow Wedding Bells” makes a tender slow movement; the third, “The Loud Alarm Bells” forms a fantastic scherzo, and the finale, “The Mournful Iron Bells”, a slow movement of death. This means, of course, that the work ends with a slow movement, which is lugubrious but ultimately consolatory. In many ways, The Bells is a counterpart to Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony (which also ends with a slow movement) and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

  Three days after the première of The Bells, Rachmaninoff returned to Moscow to give the première of the new Second Piano Sonata on December 3rd/16th. It was dedicated to Pressman. Although Rachmaninoff later revised the choral parts of The Bells’s scherzo (not necessarily an improvement: another example of Rachmaninoff’s first thoughts being better) the Second Sonata caused great difficulty.

  Rachmaninoff was interested in the production of the Boston Opera Company of his The Miserly Knight, but he would have been chagrined at the reports of Février’s Monna Vanna, which the Company premièred on December 4th, 1913. The Monthly Musical Record for April 1914 dismissed it as “rather undistinguished”. Now that Février’s piece had appeared, the way was open for Rachmaninoff to proceed with his Monna Vanna.

  Shortly after the premières of The Bells and the Second Sonata, in January 1914 Rachmaninoff travelled to England for another tour. He gave the Second Sonata in Bradford on January 30th, and while in Yorkshire he agreed that The Bells should have its British première at the Sheffield Festival later that year, but events intervened.

  Back in Moscow, he introduced The Bells on February 8th/21st. The tremendous success of the performance was complete: for Rachmaninoff, the reception was almost gladiatorial. Laurel wreaths, flowers and gifts were heaped upon him by the audience as part of a tremendous public display of affection and admiration. It was the greatest triumph of his career.

  7 War

  By the summer of 1914, the international situation had become full of menace. The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 saw the major powers lining up behind the smaller combatants, and although peace came fitfully in 1913 Bosnia, for example, still remained under Austrian control. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg, heirs to the Austrian throne, during a visit to Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, set off a chain of events which led to the outbreak of war throughout Europe. Austria issued an ultimatum to Bosnia, but the Tsar’s government intervened claiming that the action was an oblique challenge to Russia. Germany counter-acted, in turn, siding with Austria: an ultimatum was issued to Russia. When this expired, Germany declared war on August 1st. By August 4th, France, Belgium and Great Britain were at war with Germany.

  After the outbreak of hostilities Rachmaninoff cut short his holiday. The family went to his brother-in-law’s estate in the Urals, far from the fighting. Rachmaninoff was very concerned, remembering the unrest which followed the Russian defeat by the Japanese, but the successful defence of St Petersburg by the Russian army encouraged him back to Moscow. Another of the ‘old guard’, Liadov, died aged 59 on August 15th/28th, and Rachmaninoff conducted a memorial concert of Liadov’s works concluding with his own Second Symphony.

  The contrived rivalry between Rachmaninoff and Koussevitsky was forgotten when they toured Southern Russia together in aid of the war effort. The concert tours, the war, and the demands of the estate conspired to prevent Rachmaninoff composing during 1914, but music was welling up inside him: an authority on medieval church music, Stepan Smolensky, whom Rachmaninoff knew, died in 1914. Between January and February 1915 Rachmaninoff composed another masterpiece, which he dedicated to Smolensky’s memory. This was the Vesper Mass, ‘Night Vigil’ (Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye), Opus 37.

  In many ways, the Night Vigil is the most remarkable work Rachmaninoff wrote. Written for larg
e unaccompanied choir, in the manner of the Opus 31 Liturgy, it is conceived on a vast and spacious scale. Profoundly uplifting in character, it is brilliant, like the interior of a great cathedral, drenched in sunlight, with the sun’s beams shining through massive stained-glass windows, flooding the altar and interior with a blaze of natural luminescence. Rachmaninoff’s use of the choir is full of the most subtle and finely-judged light and shade. His thematic material is based largely on traditional Orthodox chants, but handled with a sureness and individuality that finally dispels any hoary ideas about Rachmaninoff’s lack of artistry. This great masterpiece, for such it is, demonstrates yet another facet of this superb creative musician’s nature.

  Alexander Nikolayevitch Scriabin, 1872-1915.

  The first performance was given in Moscow by the Synodical Choir conducted by Nikolai Danilin at a war charity concert on March 10th/23rd. It made, as it has always done, a most profound impression and four further performances followed soon after. An appreciation which touched Rachmaninoff deeply was that expressed by his old professor Taneyev. At that time the musical world was shocked by the sudden death at the age of 43, of Scriabin. Rachmaninoff and Koussevitsky collaborated in a series of concerts in his memory. At one of these Rachmininoff played Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with Koussevitsky conducting and, at a solo recital, Scriabin’s Fifth Sonata. In the audience was Prokofiev, then 24, to whom Scriabin was a musical hero. Shortly before his death, on a visit to Kiev, Scriabin had heard a remarkable ten-year-old pianist from that city, Vladimir Horowitz, whose parents sought Scriabin’s advice. His only suggestion was that they offer their son an environment of culture and artistry in which he could develop beyond pianism.

  Rachmaninoff’s recitals were not purely artistic endeavours: the proceeds were donated to Scriabin’s dependants, but Rachmaninoff’s interpretations were not to the liking of the young ‘Scriabinists’ who made their displeasure known. After the recital Rachmaninoff saw Prokofiev (whom he had met previously, when their conversation was amicable) who, with some tactlessness, said: “Nonetheless, Sergei Vasilievitch, I think you played it very well.” Rachmaninoff replied, “Did you think I would play it badly, then?”, and turned his back on Prokofiev. That incident, wrote Prokofiev, “ended our good relations.”

  Another sad occasion quickly followed when Taneyev, a mourner at Scriabin’s funeral, caught a chill at the graveside and, less than two months later, succumbed to the complications which developed. The Rachmaninoff’s heard of his death in Finland, where they were staying with Alexander Siloti’s family. The obituary Rachmaninoff wrote, quoted in Chapter 3, eloquently shows his veneration for his old professor.

  There were, however, some bright spots in the summer months: Rachmaninoff had met a rising young soprano Nina Koshetz (whose father had been a bass principal at the Bolshoi, but committed suicide in 1904), and her artistry impressed him greatly. She was then twenty years old, had graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1912 as a pianist, playing a Rachmaninoff Concerto at her graduation concert. She went to Paris to study singing with Felicia Litvinne, the dedicatee of Rachmaninoff’s song, “Dissonance” (incidentally, Litvinne took part in Leopold Stokowski’s conducting debût in Paris in 1909). At short notice on her return from Paris she deputised to sing the Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and this led to further engagements.

  Rachmaninoff and Koshetz met again at a Taneyev memorial concert. From England came news of two performances: in July, Vladimir Rosing’s Russian Opera Company successfully premièred Aleko at the London Opera House. Goureivitch conducted and Melisand d’Egville sang Zemfira. The indefatigable Henry J. Wood (knighted after his wife’s death in 1909) gave the professional première of The Isle of the Dead at a Queen’s Hall Promenade Concert on August 25th. Apart from revising the Vocalise from Opus 34, Rachmaninoff only wrote a fragment from St John’s Gospel for a war relief publication the previous February 16th/March 1st.

  The composer c.1914.

  A highlight of the new season (and another demonstration of the lack of animosity between Rachmaninoff and Koussevitsky) was an all-Rachmaninoff concert conducted by Koussevitsky comprising Spring, the Third Concerto (with Rachmaninoff as soloist) and The Bells. After Gutheil’s death some months before, Koussevitsky’s music publishing firm had taken over the Gutheil catalogue, which effectively made Koussevitsky Rachmaninoff’s publisher (apart from those works published by Jurgenson) and Koussevitsky contracted to publish Rachmaninoff’s later works. Rachmaninoff, together with Oskar von Riesemann and Nikolai von Struve, joined the board of Koussevitsky’s German company some years before the outbreak of the war in an advisory capacity: he had no say in the running of the parent company in Russia. The first work published under the new arrangement was the Night Vigil. Early in 1916 Rachmaninoff again met Nina Koshetz and, having asked Marietta Shaginian for a selection of poems, he decided to compose some songs for the soprano (his nearest approach to a song-cycle) and perform them during the 1916/17 season. While recuperating from the concert season at the Caucasian resort of Essentuki, Rachmaninoff heard of his father’s death at Ivanovka. Vasily had intended to join Sergei’s family for the summer, but he died while they were away for a few weeks.

  With Chaliapin, 1916.

  The war continued relentlessly. In February 1916 the Germans attacked Verdun; at the end of May a decisive naval battle between the British and German fleets took place off the coast of Jutland. A german submarine, the Deutschland, actually reached the coast of the United States at Norfolk, Virginia, on July 9th, at the height of the first battle of the Somme, and the sinking of the Lusitania gave rise to enormous anti-German feeling in America. Although many American immigrants had fled Europe to seek life afresh in the New World, events were leading to an inevitable USA involvement in the conflict.

  The young Leopold Stokowski Photo: RCA.

  As far as music in America was concerned the event of the 1915-16 season was the United States première of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. After several seasons with the Cincinatti Orchestra, he had been appointed conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, quickly making a considerable reputation for adventurous programmes (he programmed Das Lied von der Erde, and had introduced Elgar’s Second Symphony to the USA in Cincinatti, shortly after its London première). His German studies were invaluable, since German was the only language spoken at rehearsals of the orchestra for some time after his arrival.

  Later in 1916 the inventor of the Ampico Piano Roll system, Charles Fuller Stoddard, demonstrated it at the Hotel Biltmore in New York City. Whilst staying in Germany before the war Rachmaninoff was approached with a view to making some piano rolls and he cut several, including parts of the Second Concerto. Whether they were issued commercially is uncertain. The worsening political situation possibly prevented their release: none have survived. By the summer of 1916, apart from the two songs Rachmaninoff had composed nothing since the Night Vigil of February 1915 but, with his family safely back at Ivanovka and recovered from his father’s death, he settled down to writing the songs for Nina Koshetz. Marietta Shaginian sent a group of contemporary poems whose symbolism, quite different from anything he had attempted before, led him to adopt a freer style. The cream of this set composed mainly in September 1916 are ‘Daisies’ (No 3) and ‘The Dream’ (No 5), which is curiously dated November 2nd/15th after the first performance of the group on October 24th/November 6th given, naturally, by Nina Koshetz and Rachmaninoff. By then Rachmaninoff had already completed another work, the second set of Etudes-Tableaux for solo piano, Opus 39. The first four followed immediately after the songs, and to these Rachmaninoff added a revision of the withdrawn A minor from the original Opus 33. On November 29th in St Petersburg (now renamed Petrograd since 1914), Rachmaninoff played the first four of these Etudes-Tableaux. Together with the revisions of the discarded Opus 33 pieces and those written by the following February, the nine published studies form the complete Opus 39. The
y mark a distinct development in Rachmaninoff’s career: tonally, they are more fluid, resembling the chromaticism of Scriabin expressed within staggeringly difficult virtuoso writing. Like the first set, pictorial images are the basis for several of them: the first, in C major was suggested by another Böcklin painting, The Waves, and includes a reference to the Dies Irae. This plainchant forms the basis for the second piece, also being heard in the third, fourth, fifth and seventh of the studies. The eighth, in D minor, was inspired by Bocklin’s painting Morning. Finally, the ninth, D major, contains an uneasy rhythm which suggests a literary background, particularly with its Tempo di marcia indication.

  The Winter Palace, St. Petersburg.

  The complete Opus 39 was premièred in Petrograd on February 21st/March 6th 1917 by Rachmaninoff. Rumours spread concerning Rachmaninoff and Nina Koshetz and, shortly after, Rachmaninoff felt that their collaboration should cease. Both families had heard the gossip, which was doubtless without foundation, but to Rachmaninoff proper artistic collaboration could not flourish in such an atmosphere.

  By the beginning of 1917 the war had taken a great toll of Russian lives and materials. The government faced immense difficulties: victory against Germany was remote and seemingly unattainable. As a result of inefficient administration shortages and rationing were commonplace. To the middle-classes these difficulties seemed merely temporary and few foresaw revolt. The introduction of bread-rationing in Petrograd in March started a run on the bakeries, leading to a chronic shortage. This, to many workers, was the final degradation. Two hundred thousand workmen came out on strike, which soon brought about a general strike. Some strikers were shot and killed by troops and the following day Nicholas II dissolved the Duma.