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Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff, also commonly spelled in English as Rachmaninov, (Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов) (1 April 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He was considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, very nearly the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom which included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
The piano features prominently in Rachmaninoff’s compositional output, either as a solo instrument or as part of an ensemble. He made it a point to use his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works, he revealed a sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.
Born in 1873 in Semyonovo into a noble family of Tatar descent, who had been in the service of the Russian tsars since the 16th century. His parents were both amateur pianists. When he was four, his mother gave him casual piano lessons, but it was his paternal grandfather, Arkady Alexandrovich Rachmaninoff, who brought Anna Ornatskaya, a teacher from Saint Petersburg, to teach Sergei in 1882.
Sergei studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory before moving alone to Moscow to study piano. In his early years, he showed great skill in composition. While still a student, he wrote the one-act opera, Aleko for which he was awarded a gold medal in composition.
The sudden death of Tchaikovsky in 1893 made a strong impression on Rachmaninoff; he immediately began writing a second Trio élégiaque to his memory, clearly revealing the depth and sincerity of his grief in the music’s overwhelming aura of gloom.
His First Symphony (Op. 13, 1896) premiered on 27 March 1897 in one of a long-running series of “Russian Symphony Concerts”, but was likened by nationalist composer and critic César Cui to a depiction of the ten plagues of Egypt, suggesting it would be admired by the “inmates” of a music conservatory in hell.
After the horrific reception to the First Symphony came a period of severe depression that lasted three years, during which he wrote virtually no music.
During this whole time, the Russian Orthodox Church maintained its objection to Rachmaninoff marrying his cousin, Natalia Satina, which only deepened his depression.
In 1900, Rachmaninoff began a course of autosuggestive therapy with psychologist Nikolai Dahl, himself an amateur musician. Rachmaninoff quickly recovered confidence and overcame his writer’s block. A result of these sessions was the composition of Piano Concerto No. 2 (Op. 18, 1900–01), dedicated to Dr. Dahl.
Rachmaninoff made his first tour of the United States as a pianist in 1909, an event for which he composed the Piano Concerto No. 3 (Op. 30, 1909) as a calling card. This successful tour made him a popular figure in America. Nevertheless, he loathed the tour and declined offers of future American concerts.
Due to his busy concert career, Rachmaninoff’s output as composer slowed tremendously. Between 1918 and his death in 1943, while living in the U.S. and Europe, he completed only six compositions. This was partly due to spending much of his time performing in order to support himself and his family, but the main cause was homesickness. It was during these years that he traveled the United States as a touring pianist. When he left Russia, it was as if he had left behind his inspiration. His revival as composer became possible only after he had built himself a new home on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, where he spent summers from 1932 to 1939.
There, in the comfort of his own villa which reminded him of his old family estate, Rachmaninoff composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, one of his best known works, in 1934. He went on to compose his Symphony No. 3 (Op. 44, 1935–36) and the Symphonic Dances (Op. 45, 1940), his last completed work. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered the Symphonic Dances in 1941 in the Academy of Music.
Rachmaninoff died of melanoma on 28 March 1943, in Beverly Hills, California, just four days before his 70th birthday.
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Flight of the Bumblebee
about 12 months ago - No comments
“Flight of the Bumblebee” is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900. The piece closes Act III, Tableau 1, during which the magic Swan-Bird changes Prince Gvidon Saltanovich (the Tsar’s son) into an insect so that he can fly away to visit his father (who does not know that he is alive). Although in the opera the Swan-Bird sings during the first part of the “Flight”, her vocal line is melodically uninvolved and easily omitted; this feature, combined with the fact that the number decisively closes the scene, made easy extraction as an orchestral concert piece possible.
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are considered staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects.
Rimsky-Korsakov believed in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.
“Flight of the Bumblebee” is recognizable for its frantic pace when played up to tempo, with nearly uninterrupted runs of chromatic sixteenth notes. It is not so much the pitch or range of the notes that are played that challenges the musician, but simply the musician’s ability to move to them quickly enough; because of this and its complexity, it requires a great deal of skill to perform.
Although the original orchestral version mercifully assigns portions of the sixteenth-note runs to various instruments in tandem, in the century since its composition the piece has become a standard showcase for solo instrumental virtuosity, whether on the original violin or on practically any other melodic instrument.
“Flight of the Bumblebee” was featured, along with other of Rimsky-Korsakov’s compositions, in the fictional 1947 biopic Song of Scheherazade.
The radio program The Green Hornet used “Flight of the Bumblebee” as its theme music, blended with a hornet buzz created on a theremin. The music became so strongly identified with the show and the character that it was retained as the theme for the later TV series. This version was orchestrated by Billy May and conducted by Lionel Newman, with trumpet solo by Al Hirt, in a jazz style nicknamed “Green Bee“. This particular version was later featured in the 2003 film Kill Bill.
Very interesting – listen below:
Mikhail Glinka
about 1 year ago - 2 comments
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Russian: Михаил Иванович Глинка) (June 1. 1804 – February 15. 1857), was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition inside his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music.
Mihail Glinka
Glinka’s compositions were an important influence on future Russian composers, notably the members of The Five, who took Glinka’s lead and produced a distinctive Russian style of music.
Mikhail Glinka was born in the village of Novospasskoye, not far from the Desna River in the Smolensk Guberniya of the Russian Empire. His father was a wealthy retired army captain, as the family had a strong tradition of loyalty and service to the Tsar. As a small child, Mikhail was reared by his over-protective and pampering grandmother who fed him sweets, wrapped him in furs, and confined him to her room, which was always to be kept at 25°C (77°F); as such, he developed a sickly disposition and often falling victim to a number of quaks. The only music he heard in his youthful confinement was the sounds of the village church bells and the folk songs of passing peasant choirs.
He had three piano lessons from John Field, the Irish composer of nocturnes, who spent some time in Saint Petersburg. He then continued his piano lessons with Charles Meyer, and began composing.
In 1830, at the recommendation of a physician, Glinka decided to travel to Italy.
There, Glinka took lessons at the conservatory with Francesco Basili.
Although he spent his three years in Italy listening to singers of the day, romancing women with his music, and meeting many famous people including Mendelssohn and Berlioz, he became disenchanted with Italy. He realized that his mission in life was to return to Russia, write in a Russian manner, and do for Russian music what Donizetti and Bellini had done for Italian music. His return route took him through the Alps, and he stopped for a while in Vienna, where he heard the music of Franz Liszt. He stayed for another five months in Berlin, during which time he studied composition under the distinguished teacher Siegfried Dehn. A Capriccio on Russian themes for piano duet and an unfinished Symphony on two Russian themes were important products of this period.
A Life for the Tsar was the first of Glinka’s two great operas. It was originally entitled Ivan Susanin.
In 1837, Glinka was installed as the instructor of the Imperial Chapel Choir.
He soon embarked on his second opera: Ruslan and Lyudmila . The plot, based on the tale by Pushkin, was concocted in 15 minutes by Konstantin Bakhturin, a poet who was drunk at the time. When it was first produced on 9 December 1842 it met with a cool reception, although subsequently it gained popularity.
Glinka went through a dejected year after the poor reception of Ruslan and Lyudmila. He travelled to Paris, living quietly. From there he moved to Berlin where, after five months, he died suddenly on 15 February 1857, following a cold.
Glinka is known world wide for many great works.
