Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3 In D Minor

Sergei Rachmaninoff was a composer inspired by many of his Russian compatriot composers, especially Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, but it may come as a surprise that Rachmaninoff held the Grieg Piano Concerto In A Minor as the greatest piano concerto ever written. At least that is the recollection of the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein in an interview for television called Arthur Rubinstein At 90. Rachmaninoff liked the Grieg concerto so well that his 1st  Piano Concerto's beginning resembles the opening of Grieg's. Although it is difficult to hear any obvious similarities between the 3rd concerto and Grieg's, that doesn't mean that Rachmaninoff wasn't still influenced by it. Inspiration doesn't necessarily result in imitation.

Rachmaninoff wrote his 3rd Piano Concerto in 1909 during a summer vacation on his family's estate in Russia, where he wrote many of his works before he left Russia in 1917.  The work has never been as popular as his 2nd piano concerto, but Rachmaninoff himself preferred the 3rd as he said the 2nd was more uncomfortable to play.

There has not been a great deal of agreement with Rachmaninoff's comment as the 3rd Piano Concerto's reputation persists among other pianists as one of the most difficult in the entire repertoire. All of his works for piano and orchestra are difficult technically and with Rachmaninoff being one of the top virtuoso performers of the 20th century, that is no surprise. But there is more to it than that. Part of the difficulty is that the soloist has very few measures where the piano is not contributing either as soloist or accompanist. Rachmaninoff approved some optional cuts in the work to help shorten it and make it more popular, but these cuts are seldom taken in modern performances. Without the cuts the work lasts roughly 40 minutes, a real test for a pianist's stamina and alertness.

The 3rd Piano Concerto was premiered in New York late in 1909 with the New York Symphony Society, and was repeated a few weeks later with Rachmaninoff again the soloist and Gustav Mahler conducting. The concerto was dedicated to the Polish-American virtuoso pianist Josef Hofmann, but he never performed it in public. The concerto is in three movements:

I. Allegro ma non tanto -  The first movement begins with the orchestra playing two bars of gently throbbing material and the piano enters with a simple theme played in both hands an octave apart. This theme and parts of it occur throughout the concerto:

 The theme expands until the piano erupts into running sixteenth notes and the theme is taken up by the horns. The piano part grows more complex as well as the orchestra's part until there is a short episode for solo piano. The orchestra plays a section of transition to the 2nd theme in a major key. The first time it is played as a give and take with piano and orchestra, which is followed by a more rhapsodic version of the 2nd theme played by piano with sparse and subtle accompaniment by woodwinds and strings. After the 2nd theme is worked through, the first theme reappears but with stopped horns making an eerie comment Rachmaninoff launches into a robust and complex development section, after which the piano plays an extended cadenza with fragments of the first them sprinkled throughout it. The woodwinds take their turn with parts of the first theme as the pianist plays a rippling accompaniment. The pianist again has a solo cadenza, this time it is a fantasia on the 2nd theme. Rachmaninoff has just used a novel approach to the recapitulation section of concerto sonata form by playing the themes as piano cadenzas. The orchestra finally reenters and leads the music back to the first theme.  The orchestra and pianist make a last fleeting reference to the 2nd theme, and the music quickly leads to a very subtle and surprising pianissimo ending.

II. Intermezzo: Adagio -  The orchestra plays a melancholy theme in F-sharp minor for an extended time in the beginning of this movement, the longest section without piano participation in the entire concerto. Shortly after the piano enters the second theme in a major key is played by the soloist. The piano takes up the first theme, and piano and orchestra develop it. The second theme is heard once again and varied. Among the variations is a waltz with the orchestra carrying the thematic material while the piano plays a glittering accompaniment.  The orchestra then plays an interlude without piano that is reminiscent of the main theme of the first movement and then harks back to the introduction of the second movement. The piano changes the mood with a short solo, and then soloist and orchestra join together to lead into the last movement without pause.

III. Finale: Alla breve - There are two vigorous themes in this movement that are heard one after the other in the beginning. After these themes are presented, the second theme of the first movement is combined with the initial theme of this movement for what at first appears to the ear as new material.  The main theme of the first movement then appears in a varied form in the cellos and is hinted at in the piano, after which the second theme from the first movement makes another appearance. After some transitional material, the two themes of this movement reappear, recognizable but in different clothes. Then Rachmaninoff switches keys to D major, and the music gets more and more animated. A new theme in the new major key and as it broadens it rises into the stratosphere of Romantic expression, something that Rachmaninoff was a master of.  The music quickens again and rushes to a glorious ending.

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 1 In C Major

The last decade of the 18th century saw the increased development of the traveling virtuoso. Instead of working towards an appointment at a royal court or church, musicians found that they could take their musical facility on the road, get more exposure and perhaps make enough money to remain independent.  Mozart was one of the first musicians to go free lance as a composer and pianist, with Beethoven and Schubert following suit in the next generation. But the term free lance needs to be qualified to some extent. While these composers did not have an official position such as Kappelmeister, Cantor or Music director, they still relied indirectly on the patronage of the elite and royalty by way of commissions and other monetary assistance.

Ludwig van Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 after he had visited there earlier, and probably got the funds to do so from a patrons who knew him in Vienna and wanted him to move there. He studied with Haydn and quickly became the talk of the town by playing the piano in the salons of royalty and well-to-do citizens of the town. He gained patrons and admirers as well as getting his works published. Three years later in 1795 he gave his first public performance in Vienna.

As Beethoven rode the crest of popularity, he began thinking about trying his luck as a traveling virtuoso. Prince Lichnowsky of Vienna, friend and patron of Beethoven, helped him plan the trip and accompanied him on the journey to Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin. Lichnowsky had also been a friend and  patron of Mozart and had gone on tour with him also. Beethoven's tour of 1796 was one of the few and the longest Beethoven went on. The tour was an evident success as Beethoven was inundated with so many commissions for new works that he could not fill them.  He was away on tour from February until he returned back to Vienna in July of 1796. 

Beethoven was such a success in Prague during his first visit that he returned in October of 1798, where he played the Piano Concerto No. 1 In C Major in his first concert and the Piano Concerto No. 2 In B-flat Major in the second concert.  The Czech pianist and composer Václav Tomášek heard Beethoven in Prague in 1789 and wrote about it in his memoirs:

In the year 1798... Beethoven, the giant among pianoforte players, came to Prague. He gave a largely attended concert in the Konviktssaal, at which he played his Concerto in C major, Op. 15, and the Adagio and graceful Rondo in A major from Op. 2, and concluded with an improvisation on a theme given him... from Mozart’s “Titus”. Beethoven’s magnificent playing and particularly the daring flights in his improvisation stirred me strangely to the depths of my soul; indeed I found myself so profoundly bowed down that I did not touch my pianoforte for several days....

Although published as Piano Concerto No. 1, it was actually the third piano concerto Beethoven had written. The earlier concertos being; a  concerto in E-flat written in 1784 when he was 13, and what was published as Piano Concerto No. 2, which was written years before the first. It is all a matter of which one was published first. As the C Major concerto was published first, it is titled as such, and it was Beethoven's decision to have this concerto printed before the B-flat concerto as he thought it the better of the two.

Beethoven's sketches for the composition go back to 1793, but he performed a version of the concerto in 1795 in Vienna. He kept revising the score, performed it in 1798 , and continued to work on the score until he finished a clean copy for the publisher in 1800. It was published in 1801 and was dedicated to Anna Luisa Princess Barbara Odescalchi Furst, a royal patron and piano student in Prague. The work is in three movements:

I. Allegro con brio - The exposition begins with a march-like theme played by the orchestra. The second theme is in a more laid back mood, but has many key changes which gives an underlying edge to it. With the orchestral part of the exposition over, the soloist enters with a new theme which is only heard this one time. The orchestra reminds the piano of the march-like theme and the piano comments on it. The second theme returns in the orchestra and the soloist takes it up in a recognizable form. The solo piano bristles with scales, chords and running figures. The development section begins in the key of E-flat major in music that is almost like a nocturne. The woodwinds trade fragments of the first theme while the piano accompanies. The key changes to C minor, and then the piano plays descending chromatic scales. The music lowers to pianissimo as the horns play octaves that alternate with chords by the piano. Suddenly the soloist plays a octave glissando in fortissimo that heralds the beginning of the recapitulation. The first theme returns and the piano answers it after a few bars. Beethoven shortens the recapitulation by going directly to the second theme. Secondary material is played until the space for the cadenza is reached. Beethoven himself wrote three cadenzas for this movement, with the last two written ten years after the concerto was finished.  Each one of the cadenzas grows longer and more difficult. The recording linked to in this post has the soloist opt for the 3rd version of the cadenza which is extends the length of the first movement considerably. This cadenza is almost a separate work, a fantasia on everything that has gone before as well as some now material. It bristles with brilliance and the difficulties are considerable, not least of which is how to keep such a long cadenza part of the whole of the movement.  Near the end of the cadenza there are chains of trills, with the soloist finally playing a wide-spread C major chord, after which the orchestra alone plays a short coda.

II. Largo -  The second movement is in A-flat major, a radical departure by Beethoven as it is a key quite distant from the home key of the concerto.  The movement is in ternary form, with several themes in the first section that are repeated and developed in the middle section.  While the first movement can be called extroverted, this slow movement is more introverted. One of the characteristics of Beethoven's use of the forms of Haydn and Mozart is that he tended to extend the length of movements. The 3rd Symphony In E-flat, has been the most obvious example of this, but it happened earlier than that as with this concerto, written at least 6 years before the 3rd Symphony.

III. Rondo: Allegro - Beethoven keeps the tradition of the Classical era model of concerto final movements with a rondo. The rapid, rhythmic main theme of the movement is first played by the soloist at the very beginning:

After the piano states the theme, the orchestra has its turn. There are three episodes that occur between repeats of the rondo theme. The first episode between repeats of the rondo theme begins in G major.  The second episode in A minor, and the third in the home key of C major. But in all three of these episodes, Beethoven doesn't stay in the same key. He throws harmonic and other surprises in each one. After the final episode there is a short cadenza for pianist before the rondo theme returns. The soloist and orchestra then play a coda until the soloist plays another short cadenza as the tempo slows to adagio. The oboes answer this cadenza. There is a silent pause, after which the tempo goes back to allegro scherzando as the orchestra plays the last bars in a whirlwind fortissimo.

W.F. Bach - Harpsichord Concerto In E Minor F.43

Being the eldest son of J.S. Bach no doubt had its advantages. Wilhelm Friedemann had the benefit of one of the greatest musicians of all time as his personal teacher. Father Bach took a very personal interest in the child's musical education and created a graded course of keyboard and composition instruction with the Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.  Not only did Johann write the first volume of The Well Tempered Clavier for his eldest son, but many other pieces as well.  His father's instruction served Wilhelm well as he was acknowledged as one of the great keyboardists and improvisers of his time.

But being the eldest son of J.S. Bach had  its down sides also. Much was given to him, but much was expected. While his father's reputation as a composer came long after he died, his reputation as an organist and harpsichordist was remembered long after his death, a legacy the younger Bach may have had trouble coping with. Trying to surpass (let alone equal) his father's reputation may have been one of the reasons Wilhelm never really did very well for himself.  He never stayed in one place too long, and early biographers accused him of being hard to get along with and aloof, perhaps with good cause, but there is so little known about his life that it is not possible to be sure.  When his father died J. S. Bach's compositions were divided up between the four remaining sons that were musicians, with W.F. selling a great number of them to help pay off the debt he was under. W.F. was also not above claiming some of his father's compositions as his own. It isn't known how many of his father's works were lost because of his eldest son's shenanigans, all of which probably helped to bring about the poor opinion some scholars had of him early on.

His compositions were once considered bad  imitations of his father's, but modern scholarship has changed the opinion of his importance. He is now considered to be a composer that wrote during the transition from the Baroque age to the Classical age, in the gallante style of the times, and some music more serious in nature.  W.F. wasn't much better at tending to his own compositions as  those of his father. There is no way of knowing how many of his works are lost.

The Harpsichord Concerto In E Minor was written about 1767, roughly the same time as Haydn wrote his 35th Symphony, Mozart was 11 years old and already an accomplished composer, and Georg Philippe Telemann died in Hamburg at the age of 86 (and his godson C.P.E. Bach took over Telemann's position of musical director of Hamburg the same year).  The work is written for strings, continuo and solo harpsichord and is in three movements:

I.  Allegretto - The concerto opens with a robust theme for strings. After this is played through the soloist enters with its own theme. The rest of the movement involves these two themes as they are replayed and varied in an early version of sonata form, which W.F. Bach used in his compositions. There is also a feeling of Sturm und Drang in this first movement, and W.F. has recently been acknowledged as one of the earliest composers that used this stylistic trend. After the two themes have been thoroughly explored, there is a cadenza for soloist. After the cadenza, the first theme is repeated by the strings and the movement ends.

II.  Adagio -  The strings begin the movement, after which the soloist enters. The harpsichord steadily plays rather benign music, with the strings providing the seasoning of the movement by sudden outbursts. There is an extended section for the soloist without strings, after which the strings appear and play the thematic material while the harpsichord plays a commentary, and the movement ends with one last sigh.

III. Allegro assai -  The music moves back to the minor as the strings begin the movement by playing another robust theme. The soloist enters with commentary on the theme while the strings interrupt with the biting motives of the opening. And so the movement goes until the soloist plays a short solo, and the strings return to the robust theme of the beginning.

Dvořák - Violin Concerto In A Minor

Antonín Dvořák composed only three concertos for solo instrument and orchestra. The first was the Piano Concerto In G Minor composed in 1876, a work that has taken many years for any kind of regularity of performance and it is still rare to hear the work in concert. The last concerto was the Cello Concerto In B Minor written in 1894, the most popular of all three concertos. In between was the Violin Concerto In A Minor, a work that was finished in its first version in 1879.

Dvořák had met the violinist Joseph Joachim in early 1879 through their mutual friend Johannes Brahms. Joachim had played Dvořák's chamber music and commissioned him to write a concerto for violin.  Dvořák busied himself with the work and took the initial sketches of the concerto with him to Berlin when he visited Joachim. The violinist suggested some changes in the work, and Dvořák sent Joachim the revised work in November of 1879. No other correspondence between the two survives, but Dvořák was once again in Berlin in April 1880 and Joachim gave him his opinion of the concerto. Once again, Dvořák took Joachim's criticisms to heart and revised the work, which he sent to Joachim in late May of 1880.

It wasn't until 1882 that Joachim sent Dvořák a letter requesting more revisions and technical changes to the solo part to make it more performable. Joachim invited Dvořák once more to Berlin for a consultation, where in September of 1882 the composer and violinist played through the work. According to Dvořák:

I played the violin concerto with Joachim twice. He liked it very much, and Mr Keller, who was present as well, was delighted with it. I was very glad that the matter has finally been sorted out. The issue of revision lay at Joachim’s door for a full two years!! He very kindly revised the violin part himself; I just have to change something in the Finale and refine the instrumentation in a number of places.

Joseph Joachim

But that wasn't the end of the matter.  The Mr. Keller mentioned in the above quote was the musical advisor for Dvořák's publisher Simrock, and he suggested that changes be made to the structure of the concerto as well as advising cuts be made. Dvořák went along with some of the cuts but refused to change the structure of the concerto. In the end his publisher relented and published the score.

The premiere of the concerto took place in Prague in October of 1883, four years after Joachim had first encouraged Dvořák to write it, and the soloist at the premiere was not Joachim but František Ondříček, a young Czech violin virtuoso, who worked with the composer for two months on the work. And despite Joachim's interest, consultation and suggestions for the work, he never performed the piece.

The concerto is in three movements:

I. Allegro ma non troppo - The orchestra plays a short, powerful introduction, after which the soloist plays the first theme.  The orchestra modulates and repeats a few bars of the introduction before the soloist continues the first theme. The orchestra comments on the theme and expands it with different material until the violin again states the theme and begins to develop it. The soloist then plays the second theme in the key of C major, the parallel major key to the home key of A minor. This theme is also expanded upon, until hints of the first theme lead to the first theme's full return. There is then a short section that cuts off the theme and leads directly to the second movement. Dvořák essentially does away with the traditional sonata form of exposition, development, recapitulation by altering the exposition section and doing away with the development and recapitulation sections altogether and segues into the slow movement. This is one of the structural issues that Mr. Keller tried to change as he wanted the first and second movements to be separate.

II. Adagio ma non troppo - Written in F major, the first theme is played by the soloist and dominates  the movement. Dvořák writes music of a vocal quality for the soloist and the movement gives needed contrast from the passionate first movement. There is a more dramatic second theme that appears a few times, but it's interruptions are brief and are gently brushed aside by the return and expansion of the first theme. Dvořák's gift for melody shines in this movement that is relatively long but never lacking in interest or beauty, so much so that this movement was sometimes played without the first and last movements as a stand-alone piece. As the end approaches, horns play a fragment of the theme as an accompaniment to the soloist.

III. Finale: Allegro giocoso ma non troppo -  The movement is in A major and begins immediately with the main theme which sounds like something Mendelssohn may have written if he had been a Czech. Dvořák's fondness for the rhythms of his native dance the furiant is played throughout with tripping syncopations.  and 3 versus 2 cross rhythms characteristic of Czech folk music.  A contrasting section takes on a 2/4 time signature and a minor key as a dumka, another Czech folk dance, is played that is characterized by a very interesting part for soloist played over a 3 versus 2 cross rhythm. After the dumka plays out, the main theme reappears and takes the concerto to its conclusion.

Arensky - Piano Concerto In F Minor

Anton Arensky wrote his piano concerto when he was a 20 year old student in his final year at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1881.  He was taught composition by Rimsky-Korsakov and upon graduating he took a position as professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Moscow Conservatory where he taught Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. He returned to St. Petersburg after a few years as director of the Imperial Chapel. He retired from there after six years.

His composing became sporadic in his last few years as he suffered from tuberculosis that was aggravated by his addiction to alcohol and gambling. His old teach Rimsky-Korsakov said this about his student:

In his youth Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later the influence came from Tchaikovsky. He will quickly be forgotten.

Arensky's music is not altogether forgotten, but the piano concerto comes close as it is seldom performed. It is in three movements:

I. Allegro maestoso -  The orchestra begins the movement with a loud statement followed immediately by the soloist. After the preliminaries the piano states the first theme, a not overly complicated theme but one suitable for the different guises it wears.  There are other short snatches of material that lead up to the lyrical second main theme played by the piano. The tone of the second theme changes from lyrical to strong and forthright, and after a short exchange between piano and orchestra the development section begins. The second theme appears at the end of the development and leads to a short cadenza. Both themes are repeated in the recapitulation, and a short coda ends the movement.

II. Andante con moto -  An introduction leads to the poetic main theme played by the piano.  A middle section is more dramatic and passionate, and after flourishes by the piano the poetic theme returns. The movement ends gently.

III. Scherzo - Finale: Allegro -  Arensky had a liking for odd time signatures, and he uses 5/4 time in this movement. There are two main themes in this sonata form movement, but Arensky doesn't develop them to any great extent. They show up near the end of the movement and the concerto ends with a simple cadence.

While he is more well known forhis chamber music, especially the Piano Trio No. 1, Arensky's piano concerto is an engaging work that mirrors the composers that inspired it, mainly Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and a smidgen of Grieg. It doesn't plumb the depths of emotion but it is well written, especially for a 20 year old student.

Vivaldi - Oboe Concerto In A Minor RV 461

Despite being one of the few Baroque composers that had an international reputation during his lifetime, Antonio Vivaldi's music was hardly known by anyone outside of musicologists and scholars until the 20th century.  Vivaldi had received commissions for music from European royalty and had twelve volumes of works published. These published works, such as the opus 3 set of violin concertos titled L'Estro Armonico published in 1711 helped establish his international career and influenced composers such as J.S. Bach.  Vivaldi ceased publishing his works strictly for monetary reasons. He made more money from handwritten copies than the printed ones.

Towards the end of his life his instrumental music had gone out of style in his native Venice. He concentrated on opera and traveled to Vienna in hopes of staging them, but the patron he counted on for a living until his operas could be performed died. Vivaldi was destitute when he died in Vienna at the age of 63 in 1741, and his music was promptly forgotten.

Vivaldi was almost unknown from his death in 1741 until 1926 when a boarding school run by Salesian Fathers in Piedmont, Italy discovered a large collection of music manuscripts in their archives. It was decided to sell the manuscripts to aid the school, and they called upon the National Library in Turin to determine their worth. A scholar at the University Of Turin asked for the manuscripts to be sent to him for inspection, the scholar determined that they were manuscripts of Vivaldi's music.

It took many years of work and extended research to catalog the manuscripts as well as track down some of the missing pages, with the work being delayed by the Second World War. But at the end of the war Vivaldi's music was being printed in a new edition that was distributed throughout the music loving world, and the Vivaldi revival had begun and research is still going on to identify and discover more of his music.

While many of Vivaldi's over 500 concertos were for violin, he also wrote for many different instruments and instrument combinations. His concertos for wind instruments are notable, and he wrote more than twenty for solo oboe. The oboe was a popular instrument in the Baroque era as it was an instrument used in the orchestras of Bach and Handel as well as in concertos.

The date of composition isn't known for the Oboe Concerto RV 461.  It is in three movements:

I. Allegro non molto - Vivaldi begins with the strings playing the initial statement. The oboe plays between statements of the ritornello. This concerto is slightly different in that the ritornello played by the strings is somewhat shorter than usual while the oboes solos are slightly longer.

II. Larghetto - The slow movements of Vivaldi's concertos vary in tempo and length. This slow movement is in a major key, short in length and provides a slight contrast to the two outer movements.

III. Allegro -  The music returns to A minor and the tempo quickens as oboe and strings play off one another.

Wieniawski - Légende For Violin And Orchestra

Henryk Wieniawski was one of the most famous of the 19th century violin virtuosos, and like many virtuosos of the time he composed music for his own use. While he spent some years as a teacher, Wieniawski lived the life of a traveling virtuoso for most of his life, which was not the most conducive style of life for composing as he has only 24 opus numbers to his credit, but some of those pieces are staples of the literature for the violin.

He composed his Légende For Violin And Orchestra in Leipzig before he accepted an invitation from Anton Rubinstein to come to St. Petersburg to perform and teach. The story behind the composition is a romantic one. Wieniawski wanted to marry Isabella Hampton, but her parents did not think marrying a traveling musician would be good for their daughter and made their disapproval known. Isabella's parents heard Wieniawski play the piece in concert and as a result the beauty and heart-felt emotion of the piece changed their minds. Wieniawski and Isabella were married in 1860 with the parent's blessing.

The work is in ternary form with the first section in the key of G minor. Playing andante, two bassoons begin the work in a mood of tense motion, playing in tandem a 6th apart.  The soloist enters and plays a melancholy theme while the orchestra lightly accompanies with fragments of the tense motive first played by the bassoons. The bassoons return and the first section repeats itself until the soloist takes up the tense motion of the bassoons which leads to the second section of the work. This middle section is in two beats to the bar, the key changes to G major and the tempo changes to allegro moderato.  The mood of the music has changed as the orchestra plays in a march-like rhythm while the soloist outlines a new theme in double stops and chords. This new theme continues until it reaches a climax in the orchestra. After a chromatic downward scale for the soloist and short transitional material, the music reverts back to three in a bar, G minor and andante tempo as the first section is repeated.  The soloist once again plays the tense motive of the bassoons which leads to the orchestra playing a soft accompaniment while the soloist plays gentle arpeggios. Everything slows as the soloist reaches a G high in the stratosphere of the violin's range, and the music softly ends.