HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

Classical Principle Weekly
April 25, 2023

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
A great Russian, and a lover of America

The world recently celebrated the 150th Anniversary of this great composer, even though it took a while for the world to have a true appreciation of his genius.

Rachmaninoff is often interpreted as the "last of the Romantic composers", when, in fact, he was one of the last in maintaining the classical tradition. His All-Night Vigil (Vespers) was little-known in his lifetime. The Soviet Union had banned religious music, and produced only one recording of it, which sounds like the Red Army marching. He had requested that the 5th song in this work be played at his funeral. It was not, and had to wait for Robert Shaw to revive the Vespers in the 1980's. We will end with that work.

For a long time Rachmaninoff's works were dismissed as Romantic and "gushing melodies." His younger compatriot, Igor Stravinsky said of him, "He was a six and a half foot tall scowl” and that "he painted watercolors, in imitation of Tchaikovsky, and later, at the age of 25, turned to oils, and became a very old composer indeed." Rachmaninoff seemed to many, as stuck in the past, while new and vibrant ideas were flowing forth.

Often omitted, is the second part of Stravinsky's quote:

"But, do not expect me to denigrate him for that. In fact he was an awesome man, and there are too many others to be denigrated long before him."

Rachmaninoff had stated that he tried to compose in the style of the 20th century, but his heart was just not in it. Thank God for that! His talent was anchored in the Russian bel-canto tradition, and his technique owed a lot to his counterpoint teacher, Sergei Taneyev. Taneyev, a student of Tchaikovsky, wrote huge treatises on formal counterpoint, and became a mentor to his own teacher,Tchaikovsky. The Russian bel-canto tradition had its origins in liturgical "a capella" choral music. The St Petersburg Imperial Chapel Choir was known as one of the best in the world, and was developed with the help of Italian opera composers, as Czar Peter the Great sought not only to westernize Russia, but do something new, and unprecedented. (see photos). The chorus was trained in the best Italian bel-canto technique.

Tchaikovsky helped to launch a program to elevate the Moscow Synodal Choir to the same heights as St Petersburg, under the leadership of the great Stepan Smolensky. Rachmaninoff was only one of the many composers and conductors involved in the project for decades. This great chorus was a "sensuous laboratory" where many conductors learned to compose.

Settings of Russian hymns by both great and minor composers are almost always gorgeous. It is a long-standing tradition. This is as simple as a hymn can be:

TEBE POEM (We "hymn" thee.)

Тебе поем,
Тебе благословим,
Тебе благодарим, Господи,
и молим Ти ся, Боже наш

Tebe poem
Tebe blagoslovim
Tebe blagodarim, Gospodi
I molim Ti sia, Bozhe nash.

We sing to you,
we praise you,
we thank you, O Lord,
and we pray to you, our God.

Now, please listen to four great settings of that same hymn, over 100 years, and ask yourself how they all could be so incredibly beautiful?

1. Dmitro Bortniansky circa 1810
https://youtu.be/OesNR8FQGDs

2. Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky 1880
https://youtu.be/kW7oH6jbPf8

3. Sergei Rachmaninoff 1910
This recording includes a short introduction. The piece proper begins at 1:12. In this work, a boy soprano is better than an adult soprano. Please forgive the visual's recruiting for the church.
https://youtu.be/cGJD_b5DSyI

4. Pavel Chesnikov remains relatively unknown. He was a conductor who learned to compose by conducting the great chorus—the Moscow Synodal Choir. He stayed in the USSR to try and keep the tradition alive. The Russian a capella choruses developed choral orchestration, including oktavists—very low basses. The great oktavist Vladimir Pasyukov sings in this recording of Chesnikov's Tebe Poem. He does not growl. The lowest notes sing beautifully!

https://youtu.be/pI8qFWQa4YQ

Russia produced not only great choruses, but soloists. The tenor Ivan Kozlovsky sang Rachmnaninoff's songs beautifully. Here we present him singing a folk song with incredible nuance, while accompanying himself on guitar.
https://youtu.be/n5SxLw2ea8A

Kozlovsky was a proud Ukrainian, who sang many Ukrainian folk songs, but also performed for Soviet troops going into battle in WW II. Stalin gave him an award for purchasing a tank for the war effort. Russia and the US were allies in those days. Most Ukrainians joined the Red Army to fight Hitler.

PIANO

The Russian piano tradition was also bel-canto. Listen to Rachmaninoff play Chopin's Nocturne, Op 9, # 2, and hear how he treats it as an aria, unlike so many modern performances.
https://youtu.be/kj3CHx3TDzw

His version of Chopin's Grand Valse Brillante, Op. 18, displays a sense of humor, also lacking in many modern performances. He adds a short phrase to Chopin. See if you can detect it, and tell us if it detracts from the piece, or adds to it. (to be honest, his alterations of Bach sometimes showed poor taste.) Here, he, as composer, was in the service of another great composer.
https://youtu.be/Fk7eZR1fdx8

Many people insist that other pianists play his works better than he did. We often find his performances of his own works to be the best. Take a modern performance of the Etude tableaux Op. 39, No. 6. Does it sound like it's about "Little Red Riding Hood."
https://youtu.be/tVuP1BjbhAg

Now, let the composer, a loving grandfather, play it: https://youtu.be/GUb6Jsnepe4

While in the United States, conductors such as Eugene Ormandy appreciated the
Russian tradition of the full and rich string sounds in the orchestra (The author got to appreciate that when Yuri Temirkanov was conducting the Baltimore Symphony). Here he is playing the second movement of his Second Piano Concerto with Leopold Stokowski.
https://youtu.be/GnqytVlbNL8

He loved the United States, and loved automobiles, but had difficulty composing without the inspiration of his beloved Russia. While in the US though, he composed his "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini". The 18th variation is sometimes played at romantic slop,
https://youtu.be/ThTU04p3drM

but see if you can hear it as a variation on Paganini's Capriccio 24, which is itself a “Theme and Variations.”
https://youtu.be/UcL0IsklM3M

Brahms had made two sets of variations on this work

Rachmaninoff loved jazz, and his15th Variation is based on the great Jazz pianist Art Tatum.

Here is Rachmaninoff's 15th Variation
https://youtu.be/u4jcTQZecUY

and here is Art Tatum's "Theme for Piano"
https://youtu.be/cC9WXLG5cVM?list=PLA3354DFAD8257C1C

In his older recordings Rachmaninoff brings out the different human voices in the piano. Listen to the middle section of his Prelude in g minor, beginning at 1:15.

It stands out even on the Ampico player piano recordings.
https://youtu.be/M8RyWFA7PSY

The Andante of his Cello Sonata is too often played Adagio, another Romantic distortion. These two musicians take a tempo closer to what is indicated in the score. The movement explores the interval of the fifth as divided at the major and minor thirds.
https://youtu.be/k_aBwXWGyrs

Earlier settings of Russian liturgy ignored the chants, and celebrated the spirit of the text. Stepan Smolensky, head of the Moscow Synodal Choir insisted that composers keep the chants intact, as Bach had done with Lutheran Hymns. Many did so, but only Rachmaninoff could really pull it off. This is the song he wished to be played for his funeral, St Simeon's Prayer.

Ны́не отпуща́еши раба́ Твоего́, Влады́ко, по глаго́лу Твоему́ с ми́ром;
я́ко ви́деста о́чи мои́ спасе́ние Твое́,
е́же еси́ угото́вал пред лице́м всех люде́й,
свет во открове́ние язы́ков, и сла́ву люде́й Твои́х Изра́иля.

Nyne Otpushchaeshi raba Tvoego, Vladyko,
po glagolu Tvoyemu s mirom:
yako videsta ochi moi spaseniye Tvoye,
ezhe esi ugotoval pred litsem vsekh lyudei,
svet vo otkrovenie yazykov, i slavu lyudei Tvoikh Izrailya.

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Rachmaninoff's setting keeps the entire chant intact. He dedicated the All Night Vigil (Vespers) to Smolensky. The basses sink to a breathtaking low Bb at the end.

https://youtu.be/XrXnVXxmb1Q

The Classical Principle and Love: Part 1

Classical Principle Weekly
April 11, 2023

The Classical Principle and Love: Part 1

The Classical principle is not limited to the boundaries of what is known formally as classical music. It is a Principle of Love.

Emily Tuck was a 17 year-old student in Nova Scotia who was killed in a school shooting on April 18, 2020. Nova Scotia, and particularly Cape Breton Island have struggled to keep the tradition of the Scottish Highlands, and of highland fiddling alive, long after it was cleared out of the highlands itself. For that reason they have North America's only Gaelic College, and the "Big Fiddle" in Sydney.

Highland fiddling is a masterful tradition, and Natalie Macmaster is one of the best. Natalie and her daughter Mary decided to join a recording of Emily's playing, and thus create a fine performance which never existed in real time, but lives forever, in what might be termed "The Simultaneity of Eternity."

It is important to immortalize individuals in such a way, so that they do not simply "slip between the cracks". Natalie helped Emily to become what she surely would have become, if given half a chance.

https://youtu.be/ywQoD8xtanw

Happy Birthday Joseph Haydn 🥳—Part 2

Classical Principle Weekly
April 4, 2023
Happy Birthday Joseph Haydn 🥳—Part 2

In part 1, we traced Haydn's remarkable progress over almost 50 years, despite all hardships and opposition. Now, we look at his last quarter century, as located in the most intense musical, scientific, and social development.

In 1781, the 25 year-old Mozart moved to Vienna, and deepened his relationship with "Papa Haydn." Haydn told Mozart that with his six quartets, Op 33, he had developed an entirely new way of writing string quartets, which we heard in part 1. The next year, Mozart became steeped in the music of J.S. Bach and Handel at the salon of Baron van Swieten. Although Haydn had been inspired by Bach's son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel (1714–88), and Mozart had studied with another of Bach's sons, Johann Christian Bach (1735-82), the music of their father, J.S. Bach (1685-1750), was so suppressed, that neither Haydn nor Mozart knew much about him.

In 1782, Mozart attended the salon of Baron van Swieten, and drank deeply from the sweet music of Bach and Handel. Although Haydn followed the lead of van Swieten in composing his “Creation”, we see little evidence that he, Haydn, at the age of 50, accepted the revolutionary challenge of Bach in quite the same spirit as Mozart. He did however, continue to grow.

Mozart combined his discoveries from Bach, with Haydn's breakthroughs, in his Six String Quartets dedicated to Haydn, called “Haydn Quartets Op. 10”. He composed them over three years, and dedicated them thus:

“To my dear friend Haydn,

A father who had resolved to send his children out into the great world took it to be his duty to confide them to the protection and guidance of a very celebrated Man, especially when the latter by good fortune was at the same time his best Friend. Here they are then, O great Man and dearest Friend, these six children of mine. They are, it is true, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavor, yet the hope inspired in me by several Friends that it may be at least partly compensated encourages me, and I flatter myself that this offspring will serve to afford me solace one day. You, yourself, dearest friend, told me of your satisfaction with them during your last Visit to this Capital. It is this indulgence above all which urges me to commend them to you and encourages me to hope that they will not seem to you altogether unworthy of your favour. May it therefore please you to receive them kindly and to be their Father, Guide and Friend! From this moment I resign to you all my rights in them, begging you however to look indulgently upon the defects which the partiality of a Father's eye may have concealed from me, and in spite of them to continue in your generous Friendship for him who so greatly values it, in expectation of which I am, with all of my Heart, my dearest Friend, your most Sincere Friend,
W. A. Mozart”

You can hear how Mozart has taken Haydn's discovery of the "Motivfuhrung" much farther in this, the first movement of his String Quartet No. 18 in A major, K. 464, Op. 10, No. 5 (10 January 1785):
https://youtu.be/Kz9VhDz0dko?list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjOGKs641lHLpQ

On hearing these quartets, Haydn told Mozart's father Leopold:

"Before God, and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste, and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."

When the young Beethoven set out to compose his own set of string quartets, his Op. 18, he wrote out this A major quartet of Mozart by hand, just as Mozart had written out Haydn's D Major Symphony decades earlier.

Haydn went on to become the most famous composer in Europe. He led his Paris Symphonies in France, at the invitation of the mulatto composer from Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de St Georges, who had risen to near the top, and deserves to be better known. When a slave revolution broke out in Haiti, Bilogne gave up his court position to go and join the fight for freedom. Here is his Symphonie Concertante in G major:

https://youtu.be/VRBUA5rgaLs?list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjOGKs641lHLpQ

Beethoven

Too much is made of the supposed acrimony between Beethoven and Haydn. Beethoven was never going to be a servant of the court, and a tension between them did exist around that issue, but so did mutual respect.

Beethoven's sponsors had hoped to send him to Vienna to study with Mozart, but by the time it happened, Mozart was dead, so Haydn was chosen as his teacher. After meeting the 22-year-old Beethoven in 1792 in Bonn, on the way back from London, Haydn wrote to Beethoven’s patron, the elector of Cologne, Max Franz:

“Beethoven will one day be considered one of Europe’s greatest composers, and I shall be proud to be called his teacher.” However, at the time, Haydn was the most famous composer in the world, and had little time for teaching. Beethoven did not leave Haydn to study with Albrechtsberger, Haydn recommended him to him, saying that with a couple years of counterpoint he should be fine.

Haydn made two visits to England, one in 1790, where he was treated with great respect, and visited the composer and astronomer William Herschel to view his gigantic telescope. He wrote how happy he was, for the first time, not to be treated as a servant. There he lobbied for the works of Mozart to be played, but to no avail. When he heard in 1792 of Mozart's 1791 death, he wrote:

"I was for some time quite beside myself... I could not believe that Providence could have so quickly called such an irreplaceable man into the other world." Later he said, "friends often flatter me that I have some genius, but he stood far above me." Fifteen years later he broke into tears on hearing the name of Mozart, saying "Forgive me, I must ever, ever weep when I hear the name of my Mozart."

In 1794 he returned to London, and considered taking the young Beethoven with him. His final symphonies show the influence of both Mozart and Beethoven. His Symphony No. 104, employs variations on the same motif for three out of four movements, as had Mozart's 40th. Mozart learned the "Motivfuhrung" from Haydn, and Haydn, in his own way, continued to learn from Mozart, even after his death. Even though he could not bring Beethoven with him in body, he may have brought him along in spirit! See if the Minuet from Haydn's “Symphony in Bb, Op. 102” of 1794, does not remind you of the young Beethoven's sense of humor.

https://youtu.be/Olot6TM072A

Beethoven wrote his first piano sonata No. 1 and dedicated them to Haydn in the same year. Here is the Scherzo from sonata No. 2.

https://youtu.be/8taHehOYxvg

Can you hear a shared joy in using short motifs, with abrupt interruptions?

Haydn had a great sense of humor in life and in music. He once jumped out of a carriage when he heard one of his works being played in a wealthy mansion. He burst in, protesting it as bad music. The wealthy patrons grew very angry, until one of them said: " Hey wait a minute. That's Haydn!

His creative sense of humor was matched with courage. In 1772 he headed music in the somewhat isolated palace of Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy. The musicians were long overdue for a visit home, but the Prince requested they remain for another new symphony. They complained to Haydn about it, which put him in a delicate situation. He could not simply make the request to a Prince so arrogant that he wore a diamond-studded jacket. He had to drop a hint—a big one. He finally told the story to biographers in his old age.

Haydn told them that he composed his Symphony No. 45, known as the "Farewell Symphony" in an unusual key at the time—F# minor. The first three movements are filled with the unexpected, and with surprises, but the last movement is unique in all of music. It begins as a fast Presto, which is typical. About three minutes in, it switches to an Adagio. That is rare enough, but the audience would fully expect it to return to the Presto after a while. Instead, it remains an Adagio, and incredibly, musicians keep putting their instruments in their cases, and leaving the stage, until only two violinists are left, Haydn and his concert master. The Prince got the hint, and the musicians went home.

It can perhaps only be fully appreciated through a reenactment such as this:

https://youtu.be/4r8v8daJ4RA

But perhaps his most daring sense of humor is in his canons, which he cherished, but did not publish until the end of his life, such as "To a stupid nobleman" by that great advocate of human equality, Gottfried Lessing. Follow the words with the score.

https://youtu.be/QypOLn0k65w…

Haydn and the Masses

Many are convinced that his greatest work was his 1798 "Missa in Angustiis", the so-called Nelson Mass. It actually means "Mass in a Time of Anguish." Napoleon was threatening Austria very early in his career. Four battles had taken place, and later, Vienna was eventually occupied. There is no evidence that Haydn dedicated it to the British Empire's Lord Nelson, who had dealt Napoleon a severe blow at the time.

When Beethoven composed his Mass in C for Esterhazy's grandson (a very nasty character), he wrote:

"...may I just say that I will hand the mass over to you with great trepidation, as Your Serene Highness is accustomed to having the inimitable masterworks of the great Haydn performed."

Beethoven meant it. He studied Haydn's Masses intensely in preparation for the project.

Here is the opening "Kyrie" from Haydn's “Missa in Angustiis”. His setting of the words "Lord, have mercy on us", expresses the anguish of a nation that has been invaded.

https://youtu.be/4r8v8daJ4RA

One can learn a great deal from comparing different musical settings of the Mass. Perhaps not so much in religion, but the epistomology that underlies religion. The first four lines of the Sanctus are:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth;
heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest

This opening of the "Sanctus" is often played with a loud and triumphant tone, "Holy, Holy Holy", reflecting the sanctification (cleansing) of the soul. Take for example the magnificent Sanctus from Mozart's Requiem (whatever Süssmayr's role may have been).

https://youtu.be/8v7BwZyJ1

Even though Beethoven studied Haydn's Masses, his own works are very different. Perhaps we can see a couple of influences though. In both of his masses, Beethoven inverts the sentiment, and makes it a hushed and somewhat prayerful, even tenuous moment. He may have taken that from Haydn. Here is the Sanctus from Beethoven's “Mass in C” (he developed the concept farther in his Missa Solemnis).

https://youtu.be/GLs73fDxsmw

Here is Haydn's Sanctus from the "Missa in Angustiis".

https://youtu.be/KPbFz5xWwqY…

Let us end with a timeline of Haydn's life, as situated in the great century, accompanied by a simple piece, the Andante from his Trumpet Concerto!

https://drive.google.com/…/1MBQ6Wpkm6HSdQvSBeFq0ZQLo2…/view…