Season 201620- 17 - The Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra Rachmaninoff Festival 6:30...

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The Philadelphia Orchestra

Rachmaninoff Festival

6:30 PM The Rachmaninoff Trilogy, Part 1, written and directed by Didi Balle

“The Breakthrough” John Hutton Sergei RachmaninoffTodd Cerveris Eugene OrmandyJudith Lightfoot Clarke Natalia/Female ReporterDavid Beach Alfred Swan/NarratorPeter Bradbury Dr. Nikolai Dahl/Alexander Siloti

8:00 PM

Stéphane Denève ConductorHaochen Zhang PianoNikolai Lugansky Piano

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 I. Allegro vivace II. Largo III. Allegro vivace

Intermission

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 I. Moderato II. Adagio sostenuto III. Allegro scherzando

This program runs approximately 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Season 2016-2017Thursday, April 27

Program continued

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10:00 PM “Russian Salon” Postlude

Rachmaninoff Romance, from Two Pieces, for piano six-hands

Nikolai Lugansky, Stéphane Denève, Haochen Zhang Piano

Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableau in C minor, Op. 33, No. 3Nikolai Lugansky Piano

Rachmaninoff from Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19: I. Lento. Allegro moderato

Hai-Ye Ni CelloMarcantonio Barone Piano

Support for the Rachmaninoff Festival is provided by Tatiana Copeland. Mrs. Copeland’s mother was the niece of Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Tatiana Copeland was named after the composer’s daughter, Tatiana Sergeyevna Rachmaninoff.

Special thanks to Jacobs Music for providing the Steinway Spirio Reperformance pianos used during the Rachmaninoff Festival.

Archival exhibit in Commonwealth Plaza curated by Jack McCarthy.

Casting by Stephanie Klapper C.S.A.

Phonograph generously loaned to The Philadelphia Orchestra by Don Wilson.

Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.

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“Musician in Exile” John Hutton Sergei RachmaninoffTodd Cerveris Eugene OrmandyJudith Lightfoot Clarke Natalia/Female ReporterDavid Beach Alfred Swan/NarratorPeter Bradbury Dr. Nikolai Dahl/Alexander Siloti

8:00 PM

Stéphane Denève ConductorNikolai Lugansky Piano

Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, for piano and orchestra

Intermission

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 I. Allegro ma non tanto II. Intermezzo: Adagio— III. Finale: Alla breve


Season 2016-2017Friday, April 28

Program continued

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Szymanowski Caprice No. 24 in A minor, from Three Paganini Caprices, Op. 40

Juliette Kang ViolinParker Kitterman Piano

Rachmaninoff Prelude in G major, Op. 32, No. 5 Prelude in G-sharp minor, Op. 32, No. 12

Nikolai Lugansky Piano







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“A Musical Marriage in Philadelphia” John Hutton Sergei RachmaninoffTodd Cerveris Eugene OrmandyJudith Lightfoot Clarke Natalia/Female ReporterDavid Beach Alfred Swan/NarratorPeter Bradbury Dr. Nikolai Dahl/Alexander Siloti

8:00 PM

Stéphane Denève ConductorHaochen Zhang Piano

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 I. Vivace II. Andante III. Allegro vivace

Intermission

Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 I. Non allegro II. Andante con moto (Tempo di valse) III. Lento assai—Allegro vivace—Lento assai, come prima—L’istesso tempo, ma agitato—Poco meno mosso— “Alliluya”


Season 2016-2017Saturday, April 29

Program continued

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Rachmaninoff String Quartet No. 1 I. Romance: Andante espressivo II. Scherzo: Allegro

Marc Rovetti ViolinWilliam Polk ViolinKerri Ryan ViolaPriscilla Lee Cello

Rachmaninoff “C’était en avril”Sarah Shafer SopranoStéphane Denève Piano

Rachmaninoff Romance in A minor, Op. Posth.Ying Fu ViolinNatalie Zhu Piano

Rachmaninoff Paraphrase on Tchaikovsky’s “Lullaby,” Op. 16, No. 1

Haochen Zhang Piano







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From the Writer/DirectorThe Rachmaninoff Trilogy brings to life through music and theater the compelling story of self-exiled Sergei Rachmaninoff who, despite genius and fame, wandered the globe haunted by the loss of his beloved country and family estate (burned to the ground during the 1917 Russian Revolution) until finding an artistic home with the renowned Philadelphia Orchestra and its visionary music directors Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy. The musical and dramatic story are set in Philadelphia using the Orchestra’s real Rachmaninoff Cycle in 1939 as the anchor story and jumping-off point for flashbacks dramatizing the stories behind seminal compositions featured in the Cycle and in the Rachmaninoff Festival. We discover the arc of Rachmaninoff’s life through the making of his music and the profound and prolific relationship between the composer and the Orchestra over three decades. The 1939 scenes take place in present time at the Academy of Music and dramatize events around the Cycle. Scenes from the past are set in Russia, Scandinavia, Philadelphia, New York, Switzerland, and on a transatlantic ship.

—Didi Balle

Didi Balle created Symphonic Plays™, a new genre for actors and orchestras. She’s received nine commissions by American orchestras to create, write, and direct. In addition to The Rachmaninoff Trilogy, for The Philadelphia Orchestra she created Shostakovich: Notes for Stalin and Elements of the Earth. Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony named her the first-ever Playwright-in-Residence with a symphony orchestra. Her symphonic plays with them include CSI: Beethoven, CSI: Mozart, Analyze this: Mahler & Freud, A Composer Fit for a King: Wagner and King Ludwig II, and Tchaikovsky: Mad but for Music. Alsop, Lincoln Center, the Barbican Center, and the Colorado and St. Louis symphonies commissioned Radio Rhapsody: A Musical Tribute to Paul Whiteman. Ms. Balle’s work as a playwright, lyricist, and librettist spans song cycles, opera, musical theater, and radio musicals, and live broadcasts of her work have appeared on stations from the BBC to NPR. Her awards include a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship and the Oscar Hammerstein scholarship at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Program. She is at work on her first historical musical novel: Beethoven Betrayed.

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The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, renowned for its distinctive sound, desired for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences, and admired for a legacy of imagination and innovation on and off the concert stage. The Orchestra is inspiring the future and transforming its rich tradition of achievement, sustaining the highest level of artistic quality, but also challenging—and exceeding—that level, by creating powerful musical experiences for audiences at home and around the world.Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s connection to the Orchestra’s musicians has been praised by both concertgoers and critics since his inaugural season in 2012. Under his leadership the Orchestra returned to recording, with two celebrated CDs on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, continuing its history of recording success. The Orchestra also reaches thousands of listeners on the radio with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

Philadelphia is home and the Orchestra continues to discover new and inventive ways to nurture its relationship with its loyal patrons at its home in the Kimmel Center, and also with those who enjoy the Orchestra’s area performances at the Mann Center, Penn’s Landing, and other cultural, civic, and learning venues. The Orchestra maintains a strong commitment to collaborations with cultural and community organizations on a regional and national level, all of which create greater access and engagement with classical music as an art form.The Philadelphia Orchestra serves as a catalyst for cultural activity across Philadelphia’s many communities, building an offstage presence as strong as its onstage one. With Nézet-Séguin, a dedicated body of musicians, and one of the nation’s richest arts ecosystems, the Orchestra has launched its HEAR initiative, a portfolio of integrated initiatives that promotes Health, champions music Education, eliminates barriers to Accessing the orchestra, and maximizes

impact through Research. The Orchestra’s award-winning Collaborative Learning programs engage over 50,000 students, families, and community members through programs such as PlayINs, side-by-sides, PopUP concerts, free Neighborhood Concerts, School Concerts, and residency work in Philadelphia and abroad. Through concerts, tours, residencies, presentations, and recordings, The Philadelphia Orchestra is a global ambassador for Philadelphia and for the US. Having been the first American orchestra to perform in China, in 1973 at the request of President Nixon, the ensemble today boasts a new partnership with Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, and in 2017 will be the first-ever Western orchestra to appear in Mongolia. The Orchestra annually performs at Carnegie Hall while also enjoying summer residencies in Saratoga Springs, NY, and Vail, CO. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra, please visit www.philorch.org.


Jessica Griffin

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Music DirectorMusic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is now confirmed to lead The Philadelphia Orchestra through the 2025-26 season, an extraordinary and significant long-term commitment. Additionally, he becomes music director of the Metropolitan Opera beginning with the 2021-22 season. Yannick, who holds the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair, is an inspired leader of the Orchestra. His intensely collaborative style, deeply rooted musical curiosity, and boundless enthusiasm have been heralded by critics and audiences alike. The New York Times has called him “phenomenal,” adding that under his baton, “the ensemble, famous for its glowing strings and homogenous richness, has never sounded better.” Highlights of his fifth season include an exploration of American Sounds, with works by Leonard Bernstein, Christopher Rouse, Mason Bates, and Christopher Theofanidis; a Music of Paris Festival; and the continuation of a focus on opera and sacred vocal works, with Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Mozart’s C-minor Mass.

Yannick has established himself as a musical leader of the highest caliber and one of the most thrilling talents of his generation. He has been music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2008 and artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000. He was also principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic from 2008 to 2014. He has made wildly successful appearances with the world’s most revered ensembles and has conducted critically acclaimed performances at many of the leading opera houses.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Deutsche Grammophon (DG) enjoy a long-term collaboration. Under his leadership The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to recording with two CDs on that label. He continues fruitful recording relationships with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on DG, EMI Classics, and BIS Records; the London Philharmonic for the LPO label; and the Orchestre Métropolitain for ATMA Classique. In Yannick’s inaugural season The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to the radio airwaves, with weekly Sunday afternoon broadcasts on WRTI-FM.

A native of Montreal, Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatory of Music and continued his studies with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini; he also studied choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among Yannick’s honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year, Canada’s National Arts Centre Award, the Prix Denise-Pelletier, and honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ.

To read Yannick’s full bio, please visit www.philorch.org/conductor.

Chris Lee

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Principal Guest ConductorAs principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Stéphane Denève spends multiple weeks each year with the ensemble, conducting subscription, Family, and summer concerts. His 2016-17 subscription season appearances include a Rachmaninoff Festival; performances of John Williams’s iconic score to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial while the movie is shown in its entirety; and a tour to Florida, his second with the ensemble. Mr. Denève has led more programs than any other guest conductor since making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2007, in repertoire that has spanned more than 100 works, ranging from Classical through the contemporary, including presentations with dance, theater, film, and cirque performers. Mr. Denève is also chief conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire. From 2011 to 2016 he was chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and from 2005 to 2012 music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Recent engagements in Europe and Asia include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw and Philharmonia orchestras; the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the Vienna, London, Bavarian Radio, and NHK symphonies; the Munich and Czech philharmonics; and the Orchestre National de France. In North America he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he is a frequent guest. He appears regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco and Toronto symphonies. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2015.

Mr. Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a double winner of the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, was shortlisted in 2012 for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the 2013 International Classical Music Awards. A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Denève worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. He is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners, and works regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center and the New World Symphony. For further information please visit www.stephanedeneve.com.

Jessica Griffin

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SoloistTwenty-six-year-old Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in 2006 and makes his subscription debut with these performances. Since winning the gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, he has appeared at many of the world’s leading festivals and concert series. In 2017 he received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, which recognizes the potential for a major career in music.

A popular guest soloist for many orchestras in his native China, Mr. Zhang made his Munich Philharmonic debut with Lorin Maazel in April 2013, preceding their sold-out tour. He has toured in China with the Sydney Symphony and David Robertson; performed in Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai with the NDR Hamburg and Thomas Hengelbrock; and appeared with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in Beijing. In addition to these current performances, highlights of his 2016-17 season include a new recital CD released by BIS in February, which includes works by Schumann, Brahms, Janáček, and Liszt; extensive recital and concerto tours in Asia with performances in China, Hong Kong, and Japan; return engagements with the Osaka Philharmonic and the Singapore and Pacific symphonies; recitals in San Francisco, Palma de Mallorca, Imola, and Helsingborg; and a European tour with the Hangzhou Philharmonic, with which he was resident artist last season.

Mr. Zhang is an avid chamber musician, collaborating with such colleagues as the Shanghai String Quartet and violinist Benjamin Beilman. He is frequently invited by chamber music festivals in the U.S. His performances at the Cliburn Competition were released to critical acclaim by Harmonia Mundi in 2009. He is also featured in Peter Rosen’s award-winning documentary A Surprise in Texas, chronicling the 2009 Competition. His complete Competition performances are available on www.cliburn.tv. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Zhang studied under Gary Graffman. He was previously trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shenzhen Arts School, where he was admitted in 2001 at the age of 11.

Benjam

in Ealovega

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SoloistRussian pianist Nikolai Lugansky made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in 2008 and his subscription debut in 2010. In addition to these current performances, highlights of his 2016-17 season include a North American tour with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov; debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony; and return engagements with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, and the St. Louis and Tokyo Metropolitan symphonies. He continues his cycle of all the Prokofiev piano concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the orchestra and birth of the composer. He appears in recital in Geneva and Budapest; at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris; and in the Great Halls of the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Philharmonia. He also regularly appears at some of the world’s most distinguished festivals, including La Roque d’Anthéron, Verbier, Tanglewood, and Ravinia. His chamber music collaborators include cellists Mischa Maisky and Alexander Kniazev, and violinist Vadim Repin.

An award-winning recording artist, Mr. Lugansky records exclusively for the Naïve-Ambroisie label. His recital CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s piano sonatas won the Diapason d’Or and an ECHO Klassik award. His recording of concertos by Grieg and Prokofiev with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. His earlier recordings have also won a number of awards, including a Diapason d’Or, the BBC Music Magazine Award, and the ECHO Klassik prize. Recent recordings include a 2016 disc of music by Schubert, and Tchaikovsky’s Op. 37 Sonata and The Seasons, due for release this year.

Mr. Lugansky is artistic director of the Tambov Rachmaninoff Festival and is also a supporter of, and regular performer at, the Rachmaninoff Estate and Museum of Ivanovka. He studied at Moscow’s Central Music School and the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers included Tatiana Kestner, Tatiana Nikolayeva, and Sergei Dorensky. He was awarded the People’s Artist of Russia in April 2013.

Marco B

orggreve / Naïve-Am

broisie

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Framing the ProgramAs a celebrated composer, pianist, and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff had deep ties to The Philadelphia Orchestra that began during his first American tour in 1909 and gloriously culminated more than 30 years later with his final work, the Symphonic Dances. All five of his last orchestral compositions premiered in Philadelphia.

During the latter part of his career Rachmaninoff remarked that he wrote with the sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra in his head and that as a soloist he would “rather perform with The Philadelphia Orchestra than any other of the world.” The three concerts of this Rachmaninoff Festival celebrate this special affinity and important historical relationship.

Rachmaninoff’s five works for piano and orchestra have particularly intimate connections to the Philadelphians, with whom he performed as soloist for the premieres of the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Variations on a Theme of Paganini, and with whom he recorded them all.

Parallel Events1890RachmaninoffPiano Concerto No. 1

1926Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4

1940RachmaninoffSymphonic Dances

MusicNielsenSymphony No. 1LiteratureIbsenHedda GablerArtCézanneThe CardplayersHistoryGlobal influenza epidemics

MusicBartókThe Miraculous MandarinLiteratureMilneWinnie the PoohArtMunchThe Red HouseHistorySesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia MusicStravinskySymphony in CLiteratureHemingwayFor Whom the Bell TollsArtKandinskySky BlueHistoryTrotsky assassinated

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The Music

Sergei RachmaninoffBorn in Semyonovo, Russia, April 1, 1873Died in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 1943

Sergei Rachmaninoff pursued multiple professional careers and juggled different personal identities, often out of joint with the realities of his time and place. He was a Russian who fled his country after the 1917 Revolution and who lived in America and Europe for the rest of his life. He was a great composer who, in order to support himself and his family, spent most of his time performing, both as a conductor and as one of the towering pianists of the 20th century. And he was a Romantic composer writing in the age of burgeoning Modernism, his music embraced by audiences but seemingly from a bygone world alien to the stylistic innovations of Debussy, Schoenberg, Ives, Stravinsky, and other contemporaries.

Three Professions Rachmaninoff worried at times that his triple professional profile might cancel one another out: “I have chased three hares,” he remarked. “Can I be certain that I have captured one?” (This is based on an old Russian proverb that warned against the problem of chasing two hares, hence spreading oneself too thin.) He was an unusually accomplished performer in two domains at a time when there was an ever increasing separation between performer and composer. Rachmaninoff, in the great tradition Mozart and Beethoven through Strauss and Mahler, was the principal performing advocate of his own music.

And yet even when he was out of sync with time and place, Rachmaninoff pressed on with a gruelling performance schedule (sometimes 70 or more concerts in a year) and composed some of the most popular and enduring works of the first half of the 20th century. That during the latter half of his career he did most of this with The Philadelphia Orchestra makes the connections here all the more personal and poignant.

The Last Romantic? Rachmaninoff acknowledged his temporal and geographical homelessness. In an interview from the late 1930s he said:

I feel like a ghost in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing, and I cannot acquire the new. I have made intense effort to feel the musical manner of today, but it will not come to me. … I cannot cast out my musical gods in a moment and

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bend the knee to new ones. Even with the disaster of living through what has befallen the Russia where I spent my happiest years, yet I always feel that my own music and my reactions to all music, remained spiritually the same, unendingly obedient in trying to create beauty.

It was exactly the personal, expressive, and spiritual that so often gives his music its instantly recognizable sound, drawn from Russian folksong, Orthodox liturgical chant, and a quest for beauty. Two years before his death he declared: “A composer’s music should express the country of his birth, his love affairs, his religion, the books which have influenced him, the pictures he loves. It should be the product of the sum total of a composer’s experience.”

Rachmaninoff’s unusual positon as a late Romantic—perhaps even the last Romantic—was shrewdly assessed by Richard Taruskin in his monumental Oxford History of Western Music:

There were many, during the 1920s and 1930s, who regarded him as the greatest living composer, precisely because he was the only one who seemed capable of successfully maintaining the familiar and prestigious style of the nineteenth-century “classics” into the twentieth century. The fact that he was in fact capable of doing so, moreover, and that his style was as distinctive as any contemporary’s, could be used to refute the modernist argument that traditional styles had been exhausted.

Taruskin puts his finger on the difference between a conservative composer like Rachmaninoff, who is genuinely popular with audiences, and challenging Modernist composers whose music is widely resisted, but whose stylistic innovations earn them prominent places in history books. Rachmaninoff demonstrated that it was still possible to develop an individual, instantly recognizable, and captivating compositional voice. Samuel Barber, another composer with deep ties to The Philadelphia Orchestra, did something similar, but such figures were rare in the 20th century.

Rachmaninoff in Russia Rachmaninoff was born to a well-to-do family that assiduously cultivated his prodigious musical gifts. His mother was his first piano teacher and at age nine he began studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, but floundered there. The family finances were declining, as was his parents’ marriage, and he transferred to the Moscow Conservatory, where

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he thrived. He met leading Russian musicians, studied with some of them, and won the whole-hearted support of his hero, Tchaikovsky.

Upon graduation in the spring of 1892 Rachmaninoff was awarded the Great Gold Medal, a rarely bestowed honor. His career as both pianist and composer was clearly on the rise with impressive works such as the Piano Concerto No. 1, the one-act opera Aleko (about which Tchaikovsky enthused), and pieces in a wide variety of other genres. One piano work written at age 18 received almost too much attention: the C-sharp minor Prelude, the extraordinary popularity of which meant he found himself having to perform it for the rest of his life.

He seemed on track for a brilliant and charmed career, the true successor to Tchaikovsky. Then things went terribly wrong with the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 in D minor, which proved to be one of the legendary fiascos in music history and a bitter shock to Rachmaninoff just days before his 24th birthday. Alexander Glazunov, an eminent composer and teacher but, according to various reports, a mediocre conductor, led the ill-fated performance in March 1897. The event plunged Rachmaninoff into deep despair: “When the indescribable torture of this performance had at last come to an end, I was a different man.”

For some three years Rachmaninoff stopped composing, although he continued to perform as a pianist and began to establish a prominent new career as a conductor. He eventually found therapeutic relief and reemerged in 1901 with the Second Piano Concerto, an instant success. The following year, after surmounting religious obstacles, he married his cousin Natalia Satina, with whom he had two daughters.

His first important tour abroad was to London, where he conducted the orchestral fantasy The Rock and played various small piano pieces. (He declined to perform the First Piano Concerto, which would have been the natural vehicle but he considered it a student work until he revised it later.) His conducting career flourished as principal conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and he earned some further income teaching. But political ferment in Russia after the Bloody Sunday massacre in January 1905 prompted him to spend more time abroad and concentrate on composition, writing operas in particular. Beginning in late 1906 he and his family spent most of the year in Dresden, where he finished his Second

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Symphony, another compositional triumph. This was the piece he chose to conduct for his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1909 and it remains a signature work for the Philadelphians to this day. During this first American tour he premiered the Third Piano Concerto in New York and by the end of his three-month stay turned down the offer to become music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (He would decline again in 1918.)

These years turned out to be Rachmaninoff’s most prolific as a composer. He wrote the majority of his music during summers at a pastoral estate called Ivanovka, some 300 miles south of Moscow. But this idyllic world came to an abrupt end with the Russian Revolution in 1917. He and his family left in late December, never to return. The Bolsheviks burned most of Ivanovka to the ground (it has since been reconstructed as a museum). Rachmaninoff sought to recapture his happiest Russian memories in faraway places.

Life after Russia Challenged with finding ways to support his family, Rachmaninoff decided to concentrate on his keyboard career and began to make recordings as well, in 1920 signing a lucrative contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA). His repertory, in comparison with other star pianists, was initially quite limited, and his technique needed honing in order to compete. These realities left him with far less time to compose and his productivity declined considerably. He wrote some small piano pieces and produced many dazzling arrangements that served him well as encores on his extended American and European tours and that fit easily on 78 rpm recordings, but in his last quarter century there were only six more pieces to which he assigned opus numbers. The Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 (1931), was his final solo piano work. The five others are for, or with, orchestra, and all were premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Three Russian Songs, Op. 41, scored for chorus and orchestra, and the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 40, premiered on the same concert in March 1927 with Leopold Stokowski conducting. The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, followed in 1934, premiered with Stokowski in Baltimore. His final two works were for orchestra alone: the Symphony No. 3, Op. 44, premiered in 1936 with Stokowski, and the magisterial Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, in 1941 with Eugene Ormandy.

In 1939, to mark the 30th anniversary of his first tour to America and his debut with the Orchestra, the Philadelphians and Ormandy presented a “Rachmaninoff Cycle” here and in New York. Rachmaninoff played his first

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Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1

three concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody (with Ormandy on the podium), and conducted his Third Symphony (which he recorded at the time), and the earlier choral symphony The Bells (1913). In addition, Ormandy led the Second Symphony and The Isle of the Dead. After the first concert the New York Times reported that when Rachmaninoff came on stage the audience stood in his honor: “Their admiration for him and their enjoyment of his music were more evident there than words can make them here. The occasion was a memorable tribute to a great artist.”

The next year Rachmaninoff made his final trip to Europe and then spent his last years in America, touring to the very end. Although his music was briefly banned in the Soviet Union during the early 1930s, after he wrote a damning letter to the New York Times attacking the regime, he was prized in his homeland as well. A communication on the occasion of his 70th birthday from the Union of Soviet Composers, signed by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Kabalevsky, Glière, and others, offered “cordial greetings to you, renowned master of Russian musical art, glorious continuer of the great traditions of Glinka and Tchaikovsky, creator of works that are dear and close to the hearts of the Russian people and all progressive humanity.” Unfortunately, Rachmaninoff did not get the message. He died at his home in Beverly Hills just days before his birthday, the belated end of an era.

Although he composed a fair amount of juvenilia, Rachmaninoff decided that his First Piano Concerto should be presented as the official Opus 1. The 17-year-old began composing the work in the summer of 1890 and premiered the first movement in March 1892 at the Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated a few months later. He dedicated the piece to his cousin, pianist and conductor Alexander Siloti, who proceeded to perform it frequently. Although Rachmaninoff soon published the Concerto in a two-piano version, he cooled on the work and declined to play it himself. A decade later he said that he needed to take it “in hand, look it over, and then decide how much time and work will be required for its new version, and whether it’s worth doing, anyway.”

By his mid-30s, Rachmaninoff was a famous composer. The enormous success of the Second Piano Concerto (1901) had helped to secure that stature and people

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were understandably curious to hear what his first effort in the genre was like—hence the reassessment: “It is so terrible in its present form that I should like to work at it and, if possible, get it into decent shape.” But the Third Concerto (1909), which proved to be yet another triumph when he premiered it in New York, side-tracked him again. It was not until 1917, just before Rachmaninoff left Russia for good, that he returned to his youthful effort. The revisions involved a thinning out of the orchestration, some structural modifications, a new cadenza for the opening movement, and a considerable recasting of the finale. Rachmaninoff gave the first performance of the new version that year at Carnegie Hall with Modest Altschuler conducting the Russian Symphony Orchestra.

A Closer Look Yet despite the revisions, the First Concerto still sounds like the Rachmaninoff whose music audiences have so embraced for over a century, chronologically situated, as it is, both before and after its phenomenally famous concerto siblings and the brilliant Second Symphony (1907). Because the original version of the Concerto survives, we know that the revision remains relatively close to what the teenage Rachmaninoff initially composed. Even at such a young age many fingerprints of his mature style are already evident, beginning with the lushly expansive first theme of the first movement (Vivace) that follows a dramatic opening—a brass fanfare leading to massive double octaves loudly proclaimed by the piano soloist. This and other parts of the Concerto seem to be modeled on Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, which Siloti was diligently practicing while spending the summer of 1890 at Rachmaninoff’s country estate. The brief second-movement Andante offers a lyrical and nocturnal interlude before the vibrant finale (Allegro vivace).

The Second Concerto came at a crucial juncture in Rachmaninoff’s career, following a nearly three-year period of compositional paralysis in the wake of the legendary failure of his First Symphony in 1897. Although he stopped composing entirely, he continued to perform as a pianist, to teach, and began to establish a new career as a conductor. In the hopes of getting him back on track as a composer, friends and family put him in touch with Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who was experimenting with hypnosis

Rachmaninoff composed his First Piano Concerto from 1890 to 1891 and revised it in 1917.

Rachmaninoff himself gave the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of the piece, in March 1919, with Leopold Stokowski conducting. The most recent appearance on subscription concerts was in May 2016, when Lang Lang performed it with Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The composer returned to Philadelphia during the late 1930s for a series of performances of the piece, during which he recorded it with Eugene Ormandy and the Orchestra for RCA. The Philadelphians also recorded the Concerto for CBS in 1963, with Philippe Entremont and Ormandy.

The score calls for solo piano, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion (cymbal, triangle), and strings.

Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto runs approximately 25 minutes in performance.

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

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treatments pioneered in Paris around this time by Freud’s teacher Jean-Martin Charcot. Dahl was a gifted amateur musician who took great interest in this case. According to various accounts (perhaps exaggerated), the two met almost daily, with the composer half asleep in the doctor’s armchair hearing the mantra: “You will begin to write your concerto. … You will work with great facility. … The concerto will be of excellent quality.”

The treatment worked—or at least complemented other factors that got the composer back on his creative track. A close friendship with the phenomenal Russian bass Fyodor Chaliapin was encouraging, especially when the two were approached after a performance by writer Anton Chekhov, who remarked: “Mr. Rachmaninoff, nobody knows you yet but you will be a great man one day.” By the summer he was composing the Second Piano Concerto, his first substantial work since the Symphony fiasco; he dedicated the work to Dahl. The second and third of its three movements were completed by the fall and Rachmaninoff premiered them in Moscow that December with his cousin Alexander Siloti conducting. He finished the first movement in May 1901 and performed the entire Concerto in November. The work was greeted enthusiastically and opened the way to Rachmaninoff’s most intensive period of compositional activity.

A Closer Look To begin the first movement (Moderato), the solo piano inexorably intones imposing chords in a gradual crescendo, repeatedly returning to a low F. This opening evokes the peeling of bells, a preoccupation of many Russian composers and one that had roots in Rachmaninoff’s childhood experiences. The passage leads to the broad first theme played by the strings. The core of the Concerto is an extended slow middle movement (Adagio sostenuto). The pianistic fireworks come to the fore in the finale (Allegro scherzando), which intersperses more lyrical themes—indeed the beloved tunes from all three movements were later adapted into popular songs championed by Frank Sinatra and others.

Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto was composed from 1900 to 1901.

Ossip Gabrilowitsch was pianist in the first Philadelphia Orchestra performance of the Second Concerto, on November 28, 1916, in Cleveland; Leopold Stokowski conducted. Rachmaninoff performed the piece here in 1921 and again on other occasions during the late 1930s and early ’40s. The most recent subscription performances were in February 2012, with pianist Nikolai Lugansky and Charles Dutoit.

In addition to Rachmaninoff’s and Stokowski’s 1929 recording of the Concerto, the Orchestra recorded the work in 1956 for CBS with Eugene Istomin and Eugene Ormandy; in 1971 for RCA with Arthur Rubinstein and Ormandy; and in 1989 for EMI with Andrei Gavrilov and Riccardo Muti. The second and third movements only were also recorded by Rachmaninoff and Stokowski for RCA in 1924.

Rachmaninoff scored the work for an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, side drum), and strings, in addition to the solo piano.

Performance time is approximately 35 minutes.

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Rachmaninoff continued to build on the compositional successes of his Second Piano Concerto and Second Symphony during what turned out to be the most productive period of his career. Now in his mid-30s, he was about to undertake his first tour to America in 1909. In preparation, he decided to write a new concerto, again amidst the calm of the family retreat in Ivanovka.

Rachmaninoff dedicated the Third Concerto to Josef Hofmann, the great Polish-born pianist who would later become the director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Soon after his friend’s death, Hofmann commented: “Rachmaninoff was made of steel and gold; steel in his arms, gold in his heart.” In the end, Hofmann never performed the piece, which Rachmaninoff premiered as soloist in November 1909 with Walter Damrosch leading the New York Symphony Orchestra. After a few weeks elsewhere on his three-month tour, Rachmaninoff played the piece again in New York, this time with Gustav Mahler conducting the New York Philharmonic. (The competing orchestras later merged.)

A Closer Look The unforgettable opening of the Third Piano Concerto (Allegro ma non tanto) is simplicity itself: a hauntingly beautiful melody played in octaves that has a chant-like quality. Rachmaninoff stated that it was “borrowed neither from folk song nor from ecclesiastical sources. It just ‘got written.’ … I wanted to ‘sing’ a melody on the piano the way singers sing.” Rachmaninoff composed two cadenzas, both of which he played. The short coda returns to the opening melody.

The following Intermezzo: Adagio begins with an orchestral section presenting the principal melodic ideas, melancholic in tone, until the piano enters building to a broadly Romantic theme. There is a very brief, fast, scherzo-like section that leads without pause into the thrilling and technically dazzling Finale: Alla breve. The movement recycles some of the musical ideas of the first one, making this one of the most unified of the composer’s concertos.

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1909.

Since Alfred Cortot’s appearance in the Orchestra’s first performances of the Concerto, in January 1920 with Leopold Stokowski, a number of great pianists have performed it here, including Vladimir Horowitz, William Kapell, Emil Gilels, Van Cliburn, and André Watts. Rachmaninoff himself performed it with the Orchestra in February 1920 (with Stokowski) and in December 1939 (with Eugene Ormandy).The most recent subscription performances were in November 2013, with Yuja Wang and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The Orchestra has recorded Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto three times: in 1939 with the composer and Ormandy for RCA; in 1975 with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Ormandy for RCA; and in 1986 with Andrei Gavrilov and Riccardo Muti for EMI.

Rachmaninoff’s score calls for solo piano, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, suspended cymbal), and strings.

The Third Concerto runs approximately 45 minutes in performance.

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As early as 1914 Rachmaninoff thought of writing a new concerto to add to his performing repertory but little came of the idea until the summer of 1924, when he began composing his Fourth Concerto in G minor, which he finished in 1926. It was his first significant composition since he had left Russia nearly a decade earlier. He confided to his friend Nikolai Medtner, himself a distinguished composer to whom he dedicated the piece, that he was worried some about its length: “Perhaps it will have to be given like Wagner’s Ring cycle, over the course of several consecutive evenings.” He also acknowledged that “the orchestra is almost never silent,” which made the work “less like a concerto for piano and more like a concerto for piano and orchestra.”

The Concerto is in fact not as long as either his Second or Third, but unlike the great successes he enjoyed with those pieces, it was not well received when he premiered it with Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra in March 1927. He soon revised the piece, rewriting the opening, making cuts and other changes, before its first publication in 1928; he overhauled it again in 1941, less than two years before his death, his final compositional project. This last version he recorded with Eugene Ormandy that year and it is the most often performed. (There are recordings available of the two earlier versions.)

A Closer Look The Concerto displays many of Rachmaninoff’s distinctive musical fingerprints and gestures, but updated somewhat for the 1920s. There are fleeting influences, for example, of jazz. Rachmaninoff, along with musical luminaries, attended the legendary February 1924 premiere of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in New York with the composer playing with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra, and the experience left its mark. Unlike the subdued beginnings of his two previous concertos, this one starts with a full-blown romantically Rachmaninoff theme (Allegro vivace).

The Largo has a hint of the blues and makes use of an earlier solo piano work, the Etude-Tableau in C minor, which Rachmaninoff composed in 1911 but had held back from publication—it only appeared posthumously. The finale (Allegro vivace), which immediately follows, offers an energetic tour de force with allusions, as Rachmaninoff so often does, to the “Dies irae” from the Mass for the Dead.

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40The Fourth Piano Concerto was composed from 1924 to 1926 and revised in 1928 and again in 1941.

The Philadelphia Orchestra, conductor Leopold Stokowski, and the composer as soloist gave the world premiere of the Piano Concerto No. 4, in March 1927. Rachmaninoff and the Orchestra also performed the premiere of the 1941 revised version, in October of that year, this time with Eugene Ormandy. Most recently on subscription the work was performed in October 2015 by pianist Daniil Trifonov and Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium.

The Orchestra has recorded the Fourth Concerto twice: in 1941 with Rachmaninoff and Stokowski for RCA and in 1961 with Philippe Entremont and Ormandy for CBS.

The Concerto is scored for solo piano, piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, side drum, tambourine, triangle), and strings.

Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Concerto runs approximately 25 minutes in performance.

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Rachmaninoff composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in the summer of 1934 at his Swiss villa near Lucerne. At the time, he described it as “not a ‘concerto,’ and its name is ‘Symphonic Variations on a Theme of Paganini,’” which he then changed to “Fantasy.” But ultimately it was as a Rhapsody that Leopold Stokowski led the Philadelphians in the world premiere (in Baltimore) on November 7, 1934, with the composer as soloist. The forces recorded the piece on Christmas Eve.

Rachmaninoff had earlier been attracted to variation form and wrote substantial pieces based on themes by Chopin and Corelli. For the Rhapsody he chose a simple but ingenious tune that has also seduced many other composers: the Caprice No. 24 in A minor by Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840). The great Italian violinist, the first instrumental “rock star” of the 19th century, wrote a dazzling collection of 24 caprices for solo violin that explored everything that the instrument, and the instrumentalist, could do. In 1820 Paganini published the pieces, on which he had worked for nearly two decades, as his Op. 1. Franz Liszt, who at age 20 was deeply inspired when he first witnessed Paganini perform at the Paris Opera and who aspired to become the “Paganini of the Piano,” transcribed some of them for piano, as did Robert Schumann. More surprising and impressive are Johannes Brahms’s two sets of variations on the A-minor Caprice. Prominent 20th-century composers after Rachmaninoff, including Witold Lutosławski, Alfred Schnittke, and George Rochberg, took Modernist looks at the alluring theme.

A Closer Look The original A-minor Caprice is itself a miniature set of variations. Almost by definition variation sets begin with a statement of the principal theme in the simplest possible way so that listeners can grasp the basis for what follows. After a very brief introduction for the full orchestra, Rachmaninoff begins unusually with a pointillist variation (marked “precedente”) before the strings actually state the theme with unobtrusive piano support. The first variations are dispatched at a quick pace until things slow down with No. 7, in which the rich piano chords introduce another theme that plays a prominent role in what follows. This is the well-known plainchant “Dies irae” from the Requiem Mass for the Dead. Rachmaninoff, who alluded to or quoted the medieval melody in other compositions,

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was composed in 1934.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was the soloist in the world premiere performance of the Rhapsody, with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski on November 7, 1934, in Baltimore. The most recent subscription performances were in November 2015, with Simon Trpčeski as soloist and Gianandrea Noseda conducting.

In addition to Rachmaninoff’s recording of this work with the Philadelphians in 1934 with Stokowski for RCA, the Orchestra has recorded the Rhapsody four times: in 1958 with Philippe Entremont and Eugene Ormandy for CBS; in 1970 with Van Cliburn and Ormandy for RCA; in 1989 with Andrei Gavrilov and Riccardo Muti for EMI; and in 2015 with Daniil Trifonov and Yannick Nézet-Séguin for Deutsche Grammophon.

The score calls for an orchestra of two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, orchestra bells, side drum, snare drum, triangle), harp, and strings, in addition to the solo piano.

Performance time is approximately 25 minutes.

40B

associated this motto not only with death but also with the violin’s longstanding connection to the devil. (Many contemporaries commented on demonic performances by Paganini, whose name translates as “little pagan.”)

Five years after writing the Rhapsody, Mikhail Fokine, the prominent Russian choreographer, used the piece for a ballet called Paganini. While in the planning stages Rachmaninoff suggested to him: “Why not resurrect the legend about Paganini, who, for perfection in his art and for a woman, sold his soul to an evil spirit?” He further remarked that “the variations which have the ‘Dies irae’ represent the evil spirit.” Over the course of the 24 variations Rachmaninoff devises many ingenious transformations of the theme, the most famous being the beautiful 18th variation, which offers a lyrical inversion (upside-down) of the tune as the emotional climax of the Rhapsody.

Rachmaninoff’s last composition was the Symphonic Dances. He had been frustrated by the hostile reception given to some of his recent pieces and perhaps sensed more than ever being out of sync with his times. The exception among these later works was the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which proved an immediate success and got a further boost when the choreographer Mikhail Fokine created a wildly popular ballet called Paganini, which premiered at London’s Covent Garden in June 1939. Rachmaninoff even allowed his friend to make some changes to the score. The composer and his wife had since settled in a comfortable oceanside estate on Long Island, where Fokine and other celebrated Russians were neighbors. Rachmaninoff had never written a ballet (unlike most of his great Russian precursors and contemporaries), despite some earlier aborted projects, and wondered whether Fokine might be interested in creating a new piece. (Fokine’s death ended those hopes.)

Another great satisfaction came in late 1939 when The Philadelphia Orchestra presented a “Rachmaninoff Cycle” here and in New York. The next summer, at age 67, he was inspired to compose again for the first time in several years. He informed Eugene Ormandy: “Last week I finished a new symphonic piece, which I naturally want to give first to you and your orchestra. It is called Fantastic Dances. I shall now begin the orchestration. Unfortunately my concert tour begins on October 14. I have a great deal

Symphonic Dances, Op. 45

40C

of practice to do and I don’t know whether I shall be able to finish the orchestration before November. I should be very glad if, upon your return, you would drop over to our place. I should like to play the piece for you.”

The Symphonic Dances premiered successfully in Philadelphia, although it was less well received a few days later in New York. With time the piece established itself as a dazzling and vibrant compositional farewell, one with poignant private echoes and resonances. It is also a reminder that although Rachmaninoff was a towering pianist and wrote the five great works for piano and orchestra we hear this week, he was also a gifted conductor who composed many pieces that do not involve the piano at all, from operas, to the evocative large a cappella choral works, three symphonies, and this final orchestral masterpiece.

A Closer Look Rachmaninoff initially thought of titling the three movements “Daytime,” “Twilight,” and “Midnight,” but ultimately decided against it. The first movement (Non allegro) gets off to a rather subdued start, but quickly becomes more energetic as a rather menacing march. It is notable for its use of solo saxophone, an indication of Rachmaninoff’s interest in jazz. There is a slower middle part and coda, where he quotes the brooding opening theme of his First Symphony. Since 1940 he—and everyone—thought the score was lost (it was discovered a few years after his death)—the reference is entirely personal. The magical scoring at this point, with strings evocatively accompanied by piccolo, flutes, piano, harp, and glockenspiel, makes what had originally seemed aggressive more than 40 years earlier in the First Symphony now appear calm and serene.

The Andante con moto offers a soloistic, leisurely, melancholy, and mysterious mood in what is marked “tempo of a waltz” with a grander, faster, and more excited ending. The finale begins with a brief slow section (Lento assai) followed by a lively dance with constantly changing meters (Allegro vivace). After a slower middle section, the ending has further personal resonances. It is the last time Rachmaninoff uses the “Dies irae” chant from the Mass of the Dead, which had become something of his signature tune beginning with his First Symphony and appears in many other compositions. He also recalls music he had used in his choral All-Night Vigil nearly 30 years earlier, and here marks the score “Alliluya” (to use the Russian spelling). At the very end he wrote the words, “I thank Thee, Lord.”

—Christopher H. Gibbs

Rachmaninoff composed the Symphonic Dances in 1940.

The Philadelphia Orchestra gave the world premiere of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances in January 1941, with Eugene Ormandy on the podium. Most recently on subscription, the work was performed in October/November 2013, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting.

The work is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, E-flat alto saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, orchestra bells, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone), harp, piano, and strings.

The Philadelphians have recorded the piece twice: in 1960 for CBS with Ormandy and in 1990 with Dutoit for London.

The Symphonic Dances run approximately 35 minutes in performance.

Program notes © 2017. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

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Musical TermsGENERAL TERMSA cappella: Unaccompanied voicesCadenza: A passage or section in a style of brilliant improvisation, usually inserted near the end of a movement or compositionCaprice: A short piece of a humorous or capricious character, usually fairly free in formChord: The simultaneous sounding of three or more tonesCoda: A concluding section or passage added in order to confirm the impression of finalityEtude: A study, especially one affording practice in some particular technical difficultyFantasy: A composition free in form and more or less fantastic in characterIntermezzo: A) A short movement connecting the main divisions of a symphony. B) The name given to an independent piece, often solo piano, that is predominantly lyrical in character.Meter: The symmetrical grouping of musical rhythmsMonophony: Music for a single voice or part

Octave: The interval between any two notes that are seven diatonic (non-chromatic) scale degrees apart Op.: Abbreviation for opus, a term used to indicate the chronological position of a composition within a composer’s output. Opus numbers are not always reliable because they are often applied in the order of publication rather than composition.Plainchant: The official monophonic unison chant (originally unaccompanied) of the Christian liturgiesRhapsody: Generally an instrumental fantasia on folksongs or on motifs taken from primitive national musicScherzo: Literally “a joke.” Usually the third movement of symphonies and quartets that was introduced by Beethoven to replace the minuet. The scherzo is followed by a gentler section called a trio, after which the scherzo is repeated. Its characteristics are a rapid tempo in triple time, vigorous rhythm, and humorous contrasts. Also an instrumental piece of a light, piquant, humorous character.

THE SPEED OF MUSIC (Tempo)Adagio: Leisurely, slowAgitato: ExcitedAlla breve: (1) 2/2 meter [cut time]. (2) Twice as fast as before.Allegro: Bright, fastAndante: Walking speedCome prima: Like the first timeCon moto: With motionL’istesso tempo: At the same tempoLargo: BroadLento: SlowMeno mosso: Less moved (slower)Moderato: A moderate tempo, neither fast nor slowPrecedente: In the preceding tempoScherzando: PlayfullySostenuto: SustainedTempo di valse: Tempo of a waltzVivace: Lively

TEMPO MODIFIERSAssai: MuchMa non tanto: But not too much soPoco: Little, a bit

DYNAMIC MARKSCrescendo: Increasing volume

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