Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, strings
Duration: 33 minutes in three movements.
THE COMPOSER – SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943) – The 1897 premiere of Rachmaninoff’s 1st Symphony was a disaster. By one account the conductor (Alexander Glazunov) was intoxicated but by all accounts he was truly awful on the podium. The failure threw Rachmaninoff into a deep depression that resulted in a three-year compositional drought. The turn of the century found him splitting time between piano performance and opera conducting. Thankfully, his friends pressed him to cure his writer’s block.
THE MUSIC – Rachmaninoff’s most enduring masterpiece is the 2nd Piano Concerto, a work that might never have been written if not for the interventions of Dr. Nikolai Dahl. Dahl was a Moscow physician and amateur chamber musician who had an interest in hypnosis therapy. The existence of that particular interest has led to some rather wild conjecture regarding the nature of his “treatment” of Rachmaninoff’s malaise. The two men began meeting daily in early 1900 and though it is tempting to imagine the composer drawn out of his depression under the spell of a pendulating pocket watch, it is much more likely that the highly cultured doctor cured Rachmaninoff with a generous blend of conversation and positive suggestion. However he did it, Dahl’s efforts worked. Rachmaninoff began to sleep better, eat more, drink less and, most importantly, compose again. The project that would benefit first from this restored confidence was the 2nd Piano Concerto, which would be appropriately dedicated to “Monsieur N. Dahl.” The second and third movements of the new concerto were finished later that same year and performed to great success in Moscow. This was an important moment, as Rachmaninoff’s newly bolstered self-image probably still had an element of fragility to it. He need not have worried. As the reception in Moscow proved, he was onto something special with the 2nd Concerto. It was a lush, agreeable and instantly popular declaration of Rachmaninoff’s maturing voice. He completed the piece in 1901.
THE WORLD – 1901 also saw the first Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden, the death of Queen Victoria in Britain, the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia and the assassination U.S. President William McKinley. Other premieres included Mahler’s 4th Symphony and Bruckner’s 6th.
THE CONNECTION – The 2nd Concerto is Rachmaninoff’s most frequently programmed work. Utah Symphony last performed it in 2009 with Thomas Wilkins on the podium and Jon Kimura Parker as soloist.
