4-12-2002

SERGEI VASILYEVITCH RACHMANINOFF

СЕРГЕЙ ВАСИЛЬЕВИЧ РАХМАНИНОВ

(1873 – 1943)

No passado dia 12 de Outubro, no Grande Auditório da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, teve lugar um memorável concerto pela Orquestra Sinfónica de Milão Giuseppe Verdi, dirigida pelo Maestro Riccardo Chailly. É uma orquestra poderosa, de gente muito jovem, de muitos méritos, tal como a sua inserção no ciclo das Grandes Orquestras Mundiais fazia esperar.

No programa o Concerto para Piano n.º 2, de Rachmaninoff, tocado pelo pianista Nelson Freire, que tocou muito bem.

Não conhecia Alexander Mossolov (1900 – 1973), de quem foi tocada “A Fundição do Aço”, o impressionante retrato sonoro de uma fábrica.

Depois Ottorino Respighi (1879 – 1936), o grande compositor italiano do início do século XX. Só tinha ouvido I pini di Roma em disco, mas a interpretação da orquestra milanesa foi bem outra coisa. Quanto a La Boutique Fantasque, a sua música foi já muito utilizada no cinema.

Aqui fica também a entusiasta crítica do “Público”.

LINKS:

Rachmaninoff

Bio

Directório

Em russo

Mossolov - Александр Васильевич Мосолов

Respighi

Nelson Freire

23 de Maio de 2004 – Centro Cultural de Belém

A Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, conduzida pelo maestro Donato Renzetti interpretou primeiro a Sinfonia n.º 3 – Opus 3 – Divino Poema, de Scriabin - Александр Николаевич Скрябин - (1872-1915), que não conhecia mas que ouvi com muito agrado.

A seguir, com o Coro do Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos, cantou-se a obra de Rachmaninoff “Os Sinos”; foram solistas cantores russos: Tatyana Borodina - Татьяна Бородина, soprano, Sergei Drobitchevski - Сергей Дробышевский, tenor e Arnold Kocharyan - Арнольд Кочарян , barítono.

КОЛОКОЛЬЧИКИ И КОЛОКОЛА

Эдгар А. По. (Перевод К.Д.Бальмонта)

Слышишь, сани мчатся в ряд,

Мчатся в ряд!

Колокольчики звенят,

Серебристым легким звоном слух наш сладостно томят,

Этим пеньем и гуденьем о забвенье говорят.

О, как звонко, звонко, звонко,

Точно звучный смех ребенка,

В ясном воздухе ночном

Говорят они о том,

Что за днями заблужденья

Наступает возрожденье,

Что волшебно наслажденье - наслажденье нежным сном.

Сани мчатся, мчатся в ряд,

Колокольчики звенят,

Звезды слушают, как сани, убегая, говорят,

И, внимая им, горят,

И мечтая, и блистая, в небе духами парят;

И изменчивым сияньем,

Молчаливым обаяньем,

Вместе с звоном, вместе с пеньем, о забвенье говорят

Слышишь к свадьбе зов святой,

Золотой!

Сколько нежного блаженства в этой песне молодой!

Сквозь спокойный воздух ночи

Словно смотрят чьи-то очи

И блестят,

Из волны певучих звуков на луну они глядят.

Из призывных дивных келий,

Полны сказочных веселий,

Нарастая, упадая, брызги светлые летят.

Вновь потухнут, вновь блестят

И роняют светлый взгляд

На грядущее, где дремлет безмятежность нежных снов,

Возвещаемых согласьем золотых колоколов!

Слышишь, воющий набат,

Точно стонет медный ад!

Эти звуки, в дикой муке, сказку ужасов твердят.

Точно молят им помочь,

Крик кидают прямо в ночь,

Прямо в уши темной ночи

Каждый звук,

То длиннее, то короче,

Выкликает свой испуг, -

И испуг их так велик,

Так безумен каждый крик,

Что разорванные звоны, неспособные звучать,

Могут только биться, виться и кричать, кричать, кричать!

Только плакать о пощаде

И к пылающей громаде

Вопли скорби обращать!

А меж тем огонь безумный,

И глухой и многошумный,

Все горит,

То из окон, то по крыше,

Мчится выше, выше, выше,

И как будто говорит:

Я хочу

Выше мчаться, разгораться - встречу лунному лучу, -

Иль умру, иль тотчас-тотчас вплоть до месяца взлечу!

О, набат, набат, набат,

Если б ты вернул назад

Этот ужас, это пламя, эту искру, этот взгляд,

Этот первый взгляд огня,

О котором ты вещаешь, с плачем, с воплем и звеня!

А теперь нам нет спасенья,

Всюду пламя и кипенье,

Всюду страх и возмущенье!

Твой призыв,

Диких звуков несогласность

Возвещает нам опасность, -

То растет беда глухая, то спадает, как прилив!

Слух наш чутко ловит волны в перемене звуковой,

Вновь спадает, вновь рыдает медно-стонущий прибой.

Похоронный слышен звон,

Долгий звон!

Горькой скорби слышны звуки, горькой жизни кончен сон, -

Звук железный возвещает о печали похорон!

И невольно мы дрожим,

От забав своих спешим

И рыдаем, вспоминаем, что и мы глаза смежим.

Неизменно-монотонный,

Этот возглас отдаленный,

Похоронный тяжкий звон,

Точно стон -

Скорбный, гневный

И плачевный -

Вырастает в долгий гул,

Возвещает, что страдалец непробудным сном уснул.

В колокольных кельях ржавых

Он для правых и неправых

Грозно вторит об одном:

Что на сердце будет камень, что глаза сомкнутся сном.

Факел траурный горит,

С колокольни кто-то крикнул, кто-то громко говорит.

Кто-то черный там стоит,

И хохочет, и гремит,

И гудит, гудит, гудит,

К колокольне припадает,

Гулкий колокол качает -

Гулкий колокол рыдает,

Стонет в воздухе немом

И протяжно возвещает о покое гробом.

Translation by Konstantin Dimtrievich Balmont

OS SINOS

Escuta, ouve os sinos de prata!

Os sinos de prata

Ouve os sinos dos trenós.

Como docemente encantam os nossos estafados sentidos

E no seu tilintar e cantar se fala de um profundo olvido.

Ouçam-nos que chamam, e chamam, e chamam,

Ondulando os sons dos risos que caem

No ar glacial da noite,

Deixando uma promessa:

Que para além do embaraço da ilusão,

Nascimentos e vidas em profusão.

Espera um sono universal doce e profundo, o passado repete-se.

Ouve os sons dos trenós,

Ouve os sinos hesitantes dos trenós

Vê as estrelas em vénia para ouvir o que o sua melodia profetiza,

Com uma paixão que cativa.

E os seus sonhos são centelhas que o ar perfumado exala,

E os seus pensamentos, um mero brilho,

E a luminosa profecia

Do cantar e do tilintar que uma paz desiludida preconiza.

Ouve a harmonia dos sinos nupciais,

Sinos dourados!

Que mundo de terna paixão a sua voz melodiosa preconiza!

Os seus sons arrebatam a noite.

Como o olhar ansioso de um amante.

Que se eleva

Numa onda de enlevo sonante através do céu até à lua. .

Das células sonoras que pairam

Relampejam os sons de cantos festivos

Subindo, caindo, chamando com brilho: de centenas de gargantas felizes

Nascem as redondas, notas douradas.

E um crepúsculo de âmbar triunfa

Enquanto o suspiro do terno voto uma grande felicidade augura

Em sintonia com o ritmado soar dos sinos, dos sins dourados.

III

Ouve-os, ouve os sinos arrojados,

Ouve o tremendo alarido dos sinos irados!

No seu soluçar, no seu pulsar, soa um conto horrendo!

Choram súplicas sem fim,

Atravessam o vazio da noite negra,

Por entre a escuridão ardentemente clamando

Num temor

Ora mais perto, ora ao longe

A sua mensagem ecoa noite dentro.

E é tão violento o seu desengano

E o terror que nele se adivinha,

Que se fendem as suas destemidas cúpulas, e já só falam

Num ruidoso e desvairado bater enquanto rangem, e rangem. e rangem,

Até que a sua frenética súplica

Ao tormento cruel,

Cresce discordante, enfraquece e traqueja.

Mas o fogo tudo varre, furiosamente,

E vãs são as suas súplicas

Às chamas!

De cada janela, telhado e espiral,

Saltando cada vez mais alto, mais alto, mais alto,

Cada labareda proclama:

Pouco há-de faltar,

Mais alto saltando, ainda aspirando ao encontro com o luar;

Antes morra do meu desejo de aspirar à lua chegar.

Ó desespero, desespero, desespero,

Que tão debilmente comparamos

Com o clarão, o horror trovejante, e o pânico, e o olhar rasgado,

De quem não pode desviar as chamas.

Como o teu inútil som de clamor funebremente proclama

E numa desesperada resignação

Cedes a tua casa

A desolação guerreira!

Mas sabemos

Pelo estondear e pelo troar,

Pelo rugido e pelo guinchar,

Como o perigo vai e vem tal como a maré que vaza e enche.

E quando o perigo avança, todos o adivinham

Pelo clamor ora sumido, ora dilatado dos sinos.

Ouve o dobrar dos sinos,

O fúnebre dobrar!

Adivinha-se o fim amargo de uma vida sem ilusões no seu triste dobrar!

E que mundo de desolação habita no troar do seu ferro.

E trememos ao ver o nosso fim.

Ao pensar no nosso túmulo,

O esforço alegre dilui-se para sempre no silêncio e na escuridão.

Com uma persistência renovada

Repetem os queixumes,

Até que cada salmodia abafada

Pareça um brado,

Plangente, pesado.

O seu entoar,

Subjugado à tristeza e cavado,

Carrega a mensagem de um irmão que atravessou a margem para um último sono.

Aquelas vozes implacavelmente ondulando

Parecem ter prazer no seu dobrar

Para o pecador e o justo

Que os seus olhos se fechem para sempre, e os seus corações se tornem poeira

Onde repousam por baixo de pedra.

Mas o espírito da torre é um demónio sombrio que habita

À sombra dos sinos,

E ele delira e ele grita,

E dobra agourento, dobra agourento, dobra agourento,

Furiosamente balouça à volta da torre,

Enquanto os sinos gigantes repicam,

Enquanto os sinos arrojadamente vibram,

Gemendo o anúncio do Fim.

Enquanto os sinos de aço, imperturbáveis,

Atravessam o vazio, repetem a maldição:

Não haverá descanso nem tréguas, a não ser na calma do túmulo!

Original poem of Edgar Allan Poe

THE BELLS

Hear the sledges with the bells-

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!

While the stars that oversprinkle

All the heavens, seem to twinkle

With a crystalline delight;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells-

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

Hear the mellow wedding bells,

Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

Through the balmy air of night

How they ring out their delight!

From the molten-golden notes,

And an in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats

On the moon!

Oh, from out the sounding cells,

What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!

How it swells!

How it dwells

On the Future! how it tells

Of the rapture that impels

To the swinging and the ringing

Of the bells, bells, bells,

Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,

Bells, bells, bells-

To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

III

Hear the loud alarum bells-

Brazen bells!

What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

In the startled ear of night

How they scream out their affright!

Too much horrified to speak,

They can only shriek, shriek,

Out of tune,

In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,

In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,

Leaping higher, higher, higher,

With a desperate desire,

And a resolute endeavor,

Now- now to sit or never,

By the side of the pale-faced moon.

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells

Of Despair!

How they clang, and clash, and roar!

What a horror they outpour

On the bosom of the palpitating air!

Yet the ear it fully knows,

By the twanging,

And the clanging,

How the danger ebbs and flows:

Yet the ear distinctly tells,

In the jangling,

And the wrangling,

How the danger sinks and swells,

By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-

Of the bells-

Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,

Bells, bells, bells-

In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

Hear the tolling of the bells-

Iron Bells!

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!

In the silence of the night,

How we shiver with affright

At the melancholy menace of their tone!

For every sound that floats

From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.

And the people- ah, the people-

They that dwell up in the steeple,

All Alone

And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone,

Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone-

They are neither man nor woman-

They are neither brute nor human-

They are Ghouls:

And their king it is who tolls;

And he rolls, rolls, rolls,

Rolls

A paean from the bells!

And his merry bosom swells

With the paean of the bells!

And he dances, and he yells;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the paean of the bells-

Of the bells:

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the throbbing of the bells-

Of the bells, bells, bells-

To the sobbing of the bells;

Keeping time, time, time,

As he knells, knells, knells,

In a happy Runic rhyme,

To the rolling of the bells-

Of the bells, bells, bells:

To the tolling of the bells,

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells-

Bells, bells, bells-

To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Em 12 de Maio de 2011, o Coro Gulbenkian, composto de 53 senhoras (33 sopranos e 20 contraltos) e 51 homens (24 tenores e 27 baixos) interpretou a capella as Vésperas de Rachmaninov, com bastante agrado, apesar das dificuldades de leitura do texto russo.

Всенощное бдение

Сергей Рахманинов: Всенощное Бдение

№ 1. Приидите, поклонимся

Аминь.

Приидите, поклонимся Цареви нашему Богу.

Приидите, поклонимся и припадем Христу

Цареви нашему Богу.

Приидите, поклонимся и припадем самому

Христу Цареви и Богу нашему.

Приидите, поклонимся и припадем Ему.

№ 2. Благослови, душе моя, Господа

Аминь.

Благослови, душе моя, Господа, благословен еси,

Господи.

Господи Боже мой, возвеличился еси зело.

Благословен еси, Господи.

Во исповедание и в велелепоту облеклся еси.

Благословен еси, Господи.

Нагорах станут воды.

Дивна дела Твоя, Господи.

Посреде гор пройдут воды.

Дивна дела Твоя, Господи.

Вся премудростию сотворил еси.

Слава Ти, Господи, сотворившему вся.

№ 3. Блажен муж

Блажен муж, иже не иде на совет нечестивых.

Аллилуия, аллилуия, аллилуия.

Яко весть Господь путь праведних, и путь

нечестивых погибнет. Аллилуия …

Работайте Господеви со страхом, и радуйтеся

Ему с трепетом. Аллилуия…

… Блажени вси надеющиися нань. Аллилуия …

Воскресни, Господи, спаси мя, Боже мой.

Аллилуия …

Господне есть спасение, и на людех Твоих

благословение Твое. Аллилуия …

Слава Отцу, и Сыну, и Святому Духу, и ныне и

присно, и во веки веков. Аминь.

Аллилуия, аллилуия, аллилуия, слава Тебе, Боже.

Аллилуия, аллилуия, аллилуия, слава Тебе,

Боже.

Аллилуия, аллилуия, аллилуия, слава Тебе, Боже.

№ 4. Свете тихий

Свете тихий святыя славы, Безсмертнаго, Отца

Небеснаго, Святаго, Блаженнаго, Иисусе Христе!

Пришедше на запад солнца, видевше свет

вечерний, поем Отца, Сына и Святаго Духа, Бога.

Достоин еси во вся времена пет быти гласы

преподобными, Сыне Божий, живот даяй, темже

мир Тя славит.

№ 5. Ныне отпущаеши

Ныне отпущаеши раба Твоего, Владыко, по

глаголу Твоему с миром, яко

видеста очи мои спасение Твое, еже еси уготовал

пред лицем всех людей, свет во откровение языков,

и славу людей Твоих Израиля.

№ 6. Богородице Дево

Богородице Дево, радуйся, Благодатная Марие,

Господь с Тобою.

Благословенна Ты в женах,

и благословен Плод чрева Твоего, яко Спаса

родила еси душ наших.

№ 7. Шестопсалмие

Слава в вышних Богу, и на земли мир, в

человецех благоволение.

Слава в вышних Богу, и на земли мир, в

человецех благоволение.

Слава в вышних Богу, и на земли мир, в

человецех благоволение.

Господи, устне мои отверзеши, и уста моя

возвестят хвалу Твою.

№ 8. Хвалите имя Господне

Хвалите имя Господне. Аллилуия.

Хвалите, раби, Господа. Аллилуия.

Благословен Господь от Сиона,

живый во Иерусалиме. Аллилуия.

Исповедайтеся Господеви, яко благ. Аллилуия.

Яко в век милость Его. Аллилуия.

Исповедайтеся Богу Небесному. Аллилуия.

Яко в век милость Его. Аллилуия.

№ 9. Благословен еси, Господи

Благословен еси, Господи, научи мя оправданием

Твоим.

Ангелский собор удивися, зря Тебе в мертвых

вменившася, смертную же, Спасе, крепость

разоривша, и с Собою Адама воздвигша, и от ада

вся свобождша.

Благословен еси, Господи, научи мя оправданием

Твоим.

„Почто мира с милостивными сдезами, о

ученицы, растворяете?“

Блистаяйся во гробе Ангел, мироносицам

вещаше:

„Видите вы гроб, и уразумейте:

Спас бо воскресе от гроба.“

Благословен еси, Господи, научи мя оправданием

Твоим.

Зело рано мироносицы течаху ко гробу Твоему

рыдающия, но предста к ним Ангел, и рече:

„Рыдания время преста, не плачите, воскресение

же апостолом рцыте.“

Благословен еси, Господи, научи мя оправданием

Твоим.

мироносицы жены, с миры пришедшия ко гробу

Твоему, Спасе, рыдаху. Ангел же к ним рече,

глаголя:

„Что с мертвыми живаго помышляете?

Яко Бог бо воскресе от гроба!“

Слава Отцу, и Сыну, и Святому Духу.

Поклонимся Отцу, и Его Сыновиб, и Святому

Духу, Святей Троице во едином существе с

Серафимы зовуще:

„Свят, Свят, Свят, еси, Господи!“

И ныне, и присно, и во веки веков. Аминь.

Жизнодавца рождши, греха, Дево, Адама

избавила еси.

Радость же Еве в печали место подала еси;

падшя же от жизни, к сей направи, из Тебе

воплотивыйся Бог и человек.

Аллилуия, аллилуия, аллилуия, слава Тебе, Боже.

№ 10. Воскресение Христово видевшее

Воскресение Христово видевше, поклонимся

Святому Господу Иисусу, Единому безгрешному.

Кресту Твоему покланяемся, Христе, и святое

воскресение Твое поем и славим:

Ты бо еси Бог наш, разве Тебе иного не знаем, имя

Твое именуем.

Приидите вси вернии, поклонимся святому

Христову воскресению:

се бо прииде крестом радость всему миру, всегда

благословяще Господа,

поем воскресение Его: распятие бо претерпев,

смертию смерть разруши.

№ 11. Величит душа Моя Господа

Величит душа Моя Господа, и возрадовася дух

Мой о Бозе Спасе Моем.

Припев: Честнейшую Херувим и славнейшую

без сравнения Серафим без истления Бога Слова

рождшую, сушую Богородицу, Тя величаем.

Яко призре на смирение рабы Своея, се бо

отныне ублажат Мя вси роди.

Припев

Яко сотвори мне величие Сильный, и свято имя

Его, и милость Его в роды родов боящимся Его.

Припев

Низложи сильныя со престол и вознесе

смиренныя; алчущия исполни благ, и

богатящияся отпусти тщи.

Припев

Восприят Израиля, отрока Своего, помянути

милости, якоже глагола ко отцем нашим,

Аврааму и семени его, даже до века.

Припев

N.º 12 Славословие великое

Слава в вышних Богу, и на земли мир,

в человецех благоволение.

Хвалим Тя, благословим Тя,

кланяемтися, славословим Тя,

благодарим Тя великия ради славы Твоея.

Господи, Царю Небесный, Боже, Отче Вседержителю,

Господи Сыне Единородный, Иисусе Христе,

и Святый Душе.

Господи Боже, Агнче Божий,

Сыне Отечь, вземляй грехи мира,

помилуй нас; Вземляй грехи мира,

приими молитву нашу.

Седяй одесную Отца, помилуй нас.

Яко Ты еси Един Свят;

Ты еси Един Господь, Иисус Христос,

в славу Бога Отца, аминь.

На всяк день благословлю Тя

и восхвалю имя Твое во веки, и в век века.

Сподоби, Господи, в день сей

без греха сохранитися нам!

Благословен еси, Господи, научи мя оправданием

Твоим.

Благословен еси, Господи, научи мя оправданием

Твоим.

Благословен еси, Господи, научи мя оправданием

Твоим.

Господи! прибежище был еси нам в род и род.

Аз рех: Господи! помилуй мя,

исцели душу мою, яко согреших Тебе.

Господи! к Тебе прибегох:

научи мя творити волю Твою, яко Ты еси Бог мой,

яко у Тебе источник живота, во свете Твоем узрим

свет.

Пробави милость Твою ведущим Тя!

Святый Боже, Святый Крепкий, Святый

Безсмертный, помилуй нас!

Святый Боже, Святый Крепкий, Святый

Безсмертный, помилуй нас!

Святый Боже, Святый Крепкий, Святый

Безсмертный, помилуй нас!

Слава Отцу и Сыну и Святому Духу,

и ныне и присно и во веки веков, аминь.

Святый Безсмертный, помилуй нас.

Святый Боже, Святый Крепкий, Святый

Безсмертный, помилуй нас!

№ 13. Тропарь «Днесь спасение»

Днесь срасение миру бысть,

поем Воскресшему из гроба

и Начальнику жизни нашея:

разрушив бо смертию смерть,

победу даде нам и велию милость.

№ 14. Тропарь «Воскрес из гроба»

Воскрес из гроба и узы растерзал еси ада,

разрушил еси осушдение смерти, Господи,

вся от сетей врага избавивый,

явивый же Себе апостолом Твоим,

послал еси я на проповедь,

и теми мир Твой подал еси вселенней,

едине Многомилостиве.

№ 15. Взбранной воеводе

Взбранной воеводе победительная,

яко избавльшеся от злых,

благодарственная восписуем Ти раби Твои,

Богородице;

но яко имущя державу непобедимую,

от всяких нас бед свободи,

да зовем Ти:

радуйся, Невесто Неневестная.

Vésperas, op. 37

Vinde venerar Deus

Amen.

Vinde venerar Deus, nosso Rei.

Vinde, vinde venerá-lo e cair aos pés de Cristo,

nosso Rei, nosso Deus.

Vinde, vinde venerá-lo e cair aos pés do próprio

Cristo, nosso Rei e nosso Deus.

Vinde, vinde venerá-lo e cair aos seus pés

Abençoai a minha alma, Senhor

Amen.

Abençoai a minha alma, Senhor.

Abençoai minha alma. Senhor, sois abençoado.

Senhor.

Senhor, meu Deus, muito grandioso sois.

Sois abençoado, Senhor.

Trazeis vestes dignas e majestosas.

Sois abençoado, Senhor

As águas ficarão paradas nas montanhas.

A Vossa obra é maravilhosa, Senhor.

As águas passarão por entre as montanhas

A Vossa obra é maravilhosa, Senhor.

Com sabedoria tudo foi criado.

Gloria ao Senhor que tudo criou.

Abençoado é o homem

Abençoado é o homem que não segue o caminho

aconselhado por ímpios.

Aleluia, aleluia, aleluia.

Pois é o Senhor que conhece a via justa,

e a via dos ímpios perecerá. Aleluia...

Sirvam o Senhor com medo,

e alegrem-se com Ele com temor. Aleluia...

Abençoados são todos os que Nele têm esperança.

Aleluia...

Ressurgi Senhor. Salvai-me meu Deus. Aleluia...

Senhor sois a nossa salvação

e o Vosso povo tem a Vossa bênção. Aleluia...

Glória ao Pai ao Filho e ao Espírito Santo

Agora e para todo o sempre. Amen

Aleluia, aleluia. aleluia, glória a Vós Deus.

Aleluia, aleluia, aleluia, glória a Vós Deus.

Luz calma da glória

Luz calma da glória sagrada do Imortal Pai Celeste,

Santo, abençoado Jesus Cristo

Agora que o sol atingiu o Ocidente. e que vimos a luz

da tarde, cantamos ao Pai. Filho e Espírito Santo. Deus.

Merece Ele em todos os tempos ser cantado por

vozes reverendas. Filho de Deus, deu-nos a vida

e é glorificado por isso por todo o mundo

Deixai partir agora

Deixai partir agora, Soberano. o Vosso escravo

em paz, seguindo as Vossas palavras,

pois os meus olhos viram a Vossa salvação que Vós

preparastes diante de todas as pessoas,

luz para a sinceridade das línguas e glória ao Vosso

povo. Israel.

Alegrai-vos, Virgem

Alegrai-vos, Virgem, Mãe de Deus.

Maria cheia de graça, Deus está convosco.

Abençoada entre as mulheres,

abençoado o fruto do Vosso ventre, Jesus.

pois deu à luz o Salvador das nossas almas.

Seis Salmos

Glória a Deus nas alturas e paz na Terra aos homens

de boa vontade.

Glória a Deus nas alturas e paz na Terra aos homens

de boa vontade.

Glória a Deus nas alturas e paz na Terra aos homens

de boa vontade.

Senhor, abri os meus lábios, e eles irão proclamar

a Vossa glória.

Louvai o nome do Senhor

Louvai o nome do Senhor, Aleluia.

Louvai, ó servos do Senhor, Aleluia.

Abençoado é Senhor de Sião,

que vive em Jerusalém. Aleluia.

Confessai-vos ao Senhor, pois Ele é o bem. Aleluia.

A graça Dele é eterna. Aleluia.

Confessai-vos ao Deus celeste. Aleluia.

A graça Dele é eterna. Aleluia.

Abençoado sois, Senhor,

Abençoado sois, Senhor, ensinai-me com a Vossa

absolvição.

O Concilio angelical admirou-se ao ver-vos entre

os mortos. Destruístes a fortaleza da morte,

Salvador, e convosco erigistes Adão e a todos

salvastes do inferno.

Abençoado sois, Senhor, ensinai-me com a Vossa

absolvição.

«Porquê, ó discípulas, dissolvem a mirra com

as vossas lágrimas de compaixão? »

No túmulo, o anjo radiante dirigiu-se às portadoras

de mirra:

«Observem o túmulo e compreendam:

O Salvador ressuscitou da Sua sepultura.»

Abençoado sois, Senhor. ensinai-me com a Vossa

absolvição.

Muito cedo as portadoras de mirra correram

chorando ao pé do Vosso túmulo. Mas o Anjo

apareceu diante delas, e disse:

«Chegou o fim do tempo de choro, não chorem mais

mas anunciem a Ressurreição aos apóstolos.»

Abençoado sois, Senhor. ensinai-me com a Vossa

absolvição.

As portadoras de mirra choravam ao aproximarem-se

do Vosso túmulo. Salvador, mas o Anjo disse

dirigindo-se a elas:

« Porque colocam o vivo entre os mortos?

Pois Ele é Deus, e ressuscitou do seu túmulo! »

Glória ao Pai, ao Filho e ao Espírito Santo.

Veneremos o Pai, o Filho e o Espírito Santo,

a sagrada Trindade num só ser, anunciando

com o Serafim:

«Santo, Santo, Santo Senhor! »

Agora e no passado e para todo o sempre. Amen

Ao dar à luz o Criador da Vida, ó Virgem, livrastes

Adão do seu pecado e trocastes a tristeza de Eva por

alegria

O Homem-Deus que nasceu de Vós, restituiu a vida

daqueles que a perderam.

Aleluia, aleluia, aleluia, glória a Deus.

Tendo presenciado a ressurreição

Tendo presenciado a ressurreição do Cristo.

veneremos o Santo Senhor Jesus, o único sem pecado.

Veneremos a Vossa Cruz. Jesus, cantando

e glorificando a Vossa sagrada ressurreição:

Vós sois o nosso Deus e não conhecemos nenhum outro:

chamamos o Vosso nome.

Venham, todos os fieis, veneremos o Santo Cristo

ressuscitado:

Pois uma alegria para todo o mundo chegou

por intermédio da Cruz.

Abençoando o Senhor, cantamos a Sua ressurreição:

tendo suportado a crucificação, destruiu a morte com morte

A minha alma enaltece o Senhor

A minha alma enaltece o Senhor, e o meu espírito

regozija-se com Deus Salvador.

Refrão: Mais nobre que o Querubim e incomparavelmente

mais glorioso que Serafim, sem corrupção fizestes nascer

o Deus, e nós glorificamos o verdadeiro criador de Deus.

Por Ele ter olhado para a humildade do Seu servo, daqui em diante serei abençoado por todas as gerações.

Refrão

Por Ele poderoso ter criado a minha grandeza,

sagrado é o Seu nome, e a Sua benevolência é para

os que o temem de geração em geração.

Refrão

Ele destronou os fortes e elevou os humildes: encheu

de riquezas os necessitados e despojou os ricos.

Refrão

Ajudou o Seu servo, Israel, lembrando a sua

benevolência ao falar aos nossos pais a Abraão

e aos seus descendentes para todo o sempre.

Refrão

Grande Doxologia

Glória ao Deus nas alturas,

e paz na terra para a felicidade dos homens.

Nós Vos louvamos, nós Vos abençoamos,

nós Vos veneramos e Vos glorificamos,

nós Vos damos graças pela Vossa imensa glória.

Senhor, Rei Celestial, Deus Omnipotente.

Senhor. Filho unigénito. Jesus Cristo

e Espírito Santo.

Senhor Deus, Cordeiro de Deus

filho do Pai, que tirais o pecado do mundo,

tende piedade de nós; aceitai as nossas preces.

Sentado à direita do Pai, tende piedade de nós.

Pois só Vós sois o Santo,

o único Senhor, Jesus Cristo,

para a glória do Pai. Amen.

Vos abençoarei todos os dias

e louvarei o Vosso nome para todo o sempre.

Ajudai-nos. Senhor,

a manter este dia sem pecado.

Abençoado Sois, Senhor, Deus Nosso Pai,

e louvado e glorificado é o Vosso nome para sempre.

Que esteja connosco a Vossa misericórdia,

pois sois a nossa esperança.

Abençoado sois, Senhor, ensinai-me com a Vossa

absolvição.

Abençoado sois, Senhor, ensinai-me com a Vossa

absolvição.

Abençoado sois, Senhor, ensinai-me com a Vossa

absolvição.

Senhor. fostes o nosso refúgio de geração em geração.

Eu digo: Senhor, tende piedade de mim,

curai a minha alma, pois pequei contra Vós.

Senhor, a Vós me dirijo, ensinai-me a fazer

A Vossa vontade, pois Vós sois o meu Deus,

pois em Vós está a fonte da vida e na Vossa luz vemos

a luz.

Tende piedade daqueles que sabe de Vós.

Santo Deus, Santo Poderoso, Santo Imortal,

tende piedade de nós.

Santo Deus, Santo Poderoso, Santo Imortal,

tende piedade de nós

Santo Deus, Santo Poderoso, Santo Imortal,

tende piedade de nós.

Glória ao Pai, ao Filho e ao Espírito Santo,

agora no passado e para todo o sempre.

Santo Imortal, tende piedade de nós.

Santo Deus, Santo Poderoso, Santo Imortal,

tende piedade de nós.

Tropário “Hoje a salvação”

Hoje a salvação chegou ao mundo,

cantamos ao Ressuscitado do Seu túmulo,

criador da nossa vida:

Ao vencer a morte com a morte,

deu-nos a vitória e a grande misericórdia.

Tropário « Ressuscitou do túmulo»

Ressuscitou do túmulo e destruiu os laços do

inferno, destruiu a condenação da morte, Senhor,

libertando o mundo das redes do inimigo.

E ao aparecer aos Seus apóstolos.

mandou-os pregar pelo mundo,

e assim criou a paz na terra,

todo misericordioso.

Vitorioso líder

Vitorioso líder que nos livrou do mal.

nós.,Vossos servos,

Vos oferecemos os hinos de louvor;

Criadora de Deus:

com força invencível,

livra-nos dos males,

para vos dizermos:

«Alegrai-vos, Noiva não desposada. »

Tradução de Arman Amirkhanian

What Was the Matter with Rachmaninoff?

by Terry Teachout

June 2002

IN 1927, the British music-hall duo Flotsam & Jetsam recorded a comic song, “What Was the Matter with Rachmaninov?,” in which they lamented the popularity of the once-ubiquitous Prelude in C-Sharp Minor among hapless amateur pianists: “Then there’s another one down the street/Who must be trying it with her feet/She’s the one who gives you fits/Whenever she comes to the difficult bits.”

It was not only in music halls, however, that Sergei Rachmaninoff was criticized for being too popular.1 Few classical composers of significance have received so many unfavorable reviews over so long a period of time, and there can be little doubt that Rachmaninoff’s bad press arose in large part from the fact that his compositions were hugely successful with concertgoers who disliked most other 20th-century music.

As recently as the 1970’s, critical disdain for Rachmaninoff was so widespread that even his few open admirers, among them Commentary’s Samuel Lipman, struck a defensive note: “Whatever Rachmaninoff’s exact rank as a composer, it was his achievement to reflect his own world—simply, honestly, and directly.”2 Far more typical was the outright contempt of the American composer Walter Piston, who once confronted Gary Graffman after a performance of the Second Piano Concerto, asking, “How can you play such junk?” Similar sentiments can be found in the article about Rachmaninoff in the 1954 edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians:

As a composer he can hardly be said to have belonged to his time at all. His music is well constructed and effective, but monotonous in texture, which consists in essence mainly of artificial and gushing tunes accompanied by a variety of figures derived from arpeggios. The enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninoff’s works had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musicians never regarded it with much favor.

To read this sniffy passage today is to be reminded of a remark made by Percy Grainger: “The world around me is dying of ‘good taste.’” But tastes change, and it turns out that Rachmaninoff’s “enormous popular success” has lasted. Moreover, a growing number of musicians and critics now freely admit to holding his music in high esteem. Earlier this season, for example, New York City’s Lincoln Center presented a “Rachmaninoff Revisited” festival in which such artists as the Russian pianist-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and the British pianist Stephen Hough performed most of his major works. And while much postwar Rachmaninoff scholarship remains available only in Russian—there is still no full-length critical biography in English—two important books about his life and work were reissued in paperback last year by leading academic publishers.3 Even Grove’s finally got around to changing its mind, commissioning a new article for its 1980 edition in which Rachmaninoff is described as “the last great representative of Russian late romanticism.”

This is true enough, so far as it goes. But had Rachmaninoff’s contemporaries listened more attentively to his music, particularly the pieces he wrote after emigrating to the West in 1917, they might have seen that despite his nostalgia for the lost world of Czarist Russia, the last great Russian romantic also heard—and heeded—the call of modernity.

SERGEI VASILYEVICH Rachmaninoff was the second son of a charming but irresponsible aristocrat who had money, married more money, and lost it all. Within a few years of Sergei’s birth in 1873, the Rachmaninoffs were forced to sell their ancestral estates and move to a small apartment in St. Petersburg. Vasily Rachmaninoff and his wife Lyubov soon separated, informally but permanently, and young Sergei knew from then on that he would have to make his own way in the world.

After a false start at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the boy left his family in 1885, transferred to the Moscow Conservatory, and began working in earnest. Three years later, Tchaikovsky heard his music and predicted “a great future” for him; not long after that, he moved in with Varvara Satina, his father’s still-wealthy sister. Until he left Russia, Rachmaninoff would spend his summers at Ivanovka, the Satin family’s country home, where he did most of his composing. He was inspired by the beauty of the place, as well as by the love of a surrogate family that gave him some of the stability heretofore missing from his uncertain life. As he would later recall:

Ivanovka offered the repose of surrounding that hard work requires—at least, for me. This steppe was like an infinite sea where the waters are actually boundless fields of wheat, rye, oats, stretching from horizon to horizon. Sea air is often praised, but how much more do I love the air of the steppe, with its aroma of earth and all that grows and blossoms—and there’s no rolling boat under you, either.

Eventually, Rachmaninoff would marry Natalya Satina, his first cousin, and become master of the estate that was now his true home. By then, though, he had long since established himself as a key figure in Russian music. In 1891, he finished his first important work, the Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 1; he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory the following year, and within months had found a publisher, set up shop as a professional composer, and brought out a set of five short piano pieces, one of which would make him famous. The tightly interlocked chords of the Prelude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2, evoke the sound of tolling church bells—an onomatopoeic device of which he would thereafter make frequent use.

Rachmaninoff was one of the very small number of classical musicians to have been equally gifted as composer, pianist, and conductor. Like the comparably multitalented Leonard Bernstein, he found it difficult to keep his three lives in balance, and tended to emphasize one “career” at a time; in Russia, he alternated between conducting and playing piano, whereas in the West he was primarily known as a pianist. Still, it was his compositions that brought him the widest acclaim, though even in Russia he occasionally ran afoul of highbrow critics who, like Vyacheslav Karatygin, claimed that “[t]he public worships Rachmaninoff because he has hit the center of average philistine musical taste.”

The essential elements of Rachmaninoff’s style were already firmly in place by the time he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. Then and later, Tchaikovsky was his strongest influence, though he had a darker orchestral palette than his mentor, favoring the lower strings where Tchaikovsky’s scoring is aerated by bright woodwind lines. Similarly, his piano writing is full of thick-voiced chords that cannot be executed comfortably by players with small hands, though it also contains numerous passages of Chopin-like delicacy.4

A lifelong depressive, Rachmaninoff readily admitted to being desperately afraid of death, an obsession presumably related to the unstable circumstances into which he was born, and his melancholy temperament left its mark on his music. Most of his compositions—including all three of his symphonies and all five works for piano and orchestra—are in minor keys. The Dies Irae, the familiar plainchant setting of the section in the Roman Catholic requiem mass that refers to the day of wrath that will “dissolve the world into ashes,” is quoted prominently in several of his works, including The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 (1907), the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 (1934), and the Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (1940). In addition, some of his best-known original melodies, among them the opening themes of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 (1900-01) and the Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 (1909), have the flavor of Russian Orthodox liturgical chant.

LIKE MANY other Franco-Russian composers, Rachmaninoff did not take naturally to the sonata-allegro form that had dominated Austro-German musical tradition. Unsure of his ability to sustain an organically developed musical argument, he cut and revised many of his longer pieces prior to their final publication, and sometimes even after that. Significantly, he admitted to finding it “of great help,” when composing, “to have in mind a book just recently read, or a beautiful picture, or a poem. Sometimes a definite story is kept in mind, which I try to convert into tones without disclosing the source of my inspiration.”5

Not surprisingly, then, he was more at home with character pieces for solo piano, which require less rigorous formal control, and with songs and choral music, whose structure mirrors the sequence and imagery of a pre-existing verbal text. While he also produced a few successful large-scale instrumental works during his Russian years, most notably the Second and Third Piano Concertos and the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27 (1906-7), more characteristic—and arguably more effective—is The Isle of the Dead, a Liszt-like symphonic poem inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s macabre painting of the same name.

This lack of formal rigor was offputting to German-trained critics, who habitually condescended to Rachmaninoff without betraying the slightest appreciation of his gift for writing the long-breathed, immediately memorable tunes that are now known the world over as his trademark. Amazingly, the writer Philip Hale rendered the following wrongheaded judgment on the Second Concerto in a program note for the Boston Symphony’s first performance of that now-beloved piece: “The first movement is labored and has little marked character. It might have been written by any German, technically well trained, who was acquainted with the music of Tchaikovsky.”

As he grew older, Rachmaninoff lightened his palette, producing songs whose vaporous keyboard textures and elaborately chromatic harmonies are almost impressionistic in effect. At the same time, his rhythmic language became more unpredictable, even aggressive; the Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter would later go so far as to claim that the Etudes-Tableaux, Opp. 33 and 39 (1911-16) foreshadowed the modernist keyboard techniques of Sergei Prokofiev. Still, these changes took place within the framework of an already well-defined style, and though the Etudes-Tableaux are more musically sophisticated than Rachmaninoff’s earlier pieces, they are no less clearly the work of the composer of the C-Sharp Minor Prelude.

RACHMANINOFF'S STYLISTIC growth was interrupted by the Russian Revolution, a disaster about whose implications he had no doubt whatsoever. At the end of 1917, the composer and his family left Russia, never to return. Fourteen years later, he would co-sign a letter to the New York Times declaring that “[a]t no time, and in no country, has there ever existed a government responsible for so many cruelties, wholesale murders, and common-law crimes in general as those perpetrated by the Bolsheviki.”

No sooner had he settled in the U.S. than Rachmaninoff realized he would no longer be able to earn a living as a composer: Russia had never ratified international copyright conventions, thus making it impossible for him to profit from the continuing sale of his most popular works. Igor Stravinsky faced a similar problem when he emigrated from the Soviet Union, and both men came up with the same solution, retrofitting themselves as high-priced celebrity performers. Rachmaninoff briefly considered a career as a conductor (the Boston Symphony even offered to make him its music director), but opted instead to become a full-time concert pianist, playing his own concertos with symphony orchestras and giving numerous solo recitals that established him as one of the half-dozen greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th century.

Rachmaninoff recorded extensively between 1919 and 1942, making it possible for later generations to hear the playing that W. J. Henderson described in his review of a 1929 performance of the Chopin B-Flat Minor Sonata:

The logic of the thing was impervious; the plan was invulnerable; the proclamation was imperial. There was nothing left for us but to thank our stars that we had lived when Rachmaninoff did and heard him, out of the divine might of his genius, re-create a masterpiece. It was a day of genius understanding genius.

But while Rachmaninoff’s 78’s continue to be admired by connoisseurs, the impression they make on modern-day listeners is quite different from that which they made when new.6 Today, Rachmaninoff is seen as the quintessential romantic, imperiously high-handed in his free treatment of the printed text; but in his own time he was thought to be (in the phrase of the American critic-composer H. T. Parker) “the puritan of pianists,” austere and direct to the point of matter-of-factness. In fact, both points of view are valid. For all the flexibility he brought to the music of Chopin and Schumann, it is Rachmaninoff’s galvanizing rhythmic exactitude that gives his playing the distinctively “modern” quality noted by his contemporaries.

UNFORTUNATELY, his grueling concert schedule, including the immense amount of practice time he needed in order to work up a sufficiently varied solo repertoire, made it all but impossible for him to concentrate on composing. Beyond this, the shock of leaving his native land—of losing Ivanovka, for him the embodiment of all things Russian—robbed him of inspiration. As a result, he wrote no original compositions of any kind between 1918 and 1925, and from 1926 until his death seventeen years later he produced only six pieces.

By the time Rachmaninoff once again felt capable of composing, he had become painfully aware that the world of classical music had changed beyond recognition. Czarist Russia had been more or less isolated from modernist developments in the West; but by 1926, the modern movement in music was firmly established in Europe and America, and Rachmaninoff claimed to find its values unsympathetic: “I feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing, and I cannot acquire the new. The new kind of music seems to come, not from the heart, but from the head. Its composers think rather than feel.”

Yet for all his seeming rejection of modernism, the compositions of Rachmaninoff’s later years suggest that he was not only aware of the new music but had even been influenced by it. In addition to being more compact and coherent in form than their predecessors, the Paganini Rhapsody, Symphonic Dances, and Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 44 (1936) are tough-minded, even sardonic in tone. Rhythmically edgy and harmonically acerbic, these romantic yet forward-looking pieces are the work of an artist who was fully prepared to engage with modernity—on his own terms. It is revealing that only the Paganini Rhapsody found ready acceptance in the concert hall, no doubt because it is a spectacular virtuoso showpiece, whereas the Third Symphony and Symphonic Dances left audiences cold.

Alas, Rachmaninoff wrote no more music after the Symphonic Dances, claiming that they were his “last flicker” of inspiration. Instead, he threw himself into concertizing, continuing to perform even after it became clear that he was seriously ill. In February of 1943, he canceled his remaining appearances and returned home to Los Angeles, where his doctors learned that what they had thought to be a severe case of pleurisy was in fact malignant melanoma, a particularly virulent form of cancer. He died a month later, and was buried in New York.

THE REHABILITATION of Rachmaninoff is one of the most curious chapters in the history of musical taste. For unlike so many apparently similar phenomena, it cannot be explained by the collapse of the avant-garde monopoly. Rather, Rachmaninoff’s music was widely dismissed by tonal and atonal modernists alike, and it was only because of the unswerving loyalty of performers—and, of course, audiences—that he continued to be performed throughout the era of high modernism.

That so committed an exponent of the natural law of tonality should have inspired such widespread contempt even among those who shared his views can be partially explained by recourse to one of the fundamental tenets of modernism itself: the notion that cultural progress is historically inevitable. According to this view, it is possible to be a tradition-minded modernist, but only by working in an idiom that is unambiguously contemporary in flavor. Thus, Stravinsky was a conservative modernist who sought to reinterpret and refresh the language of functional tonality, whereas Rachmaninoff, though no less committed to tonality, was an anti-modern reactionary who refused to change with the times.

This is, of course, a Marxist-style political interpretation of history disguised as an iron law of aesthetics. But while it may have some validity as a general proposition, it has no relevance to the particular case of Rachmaninoff. Not only was he a decade older than such first-generation modernists as Bartók, Berg, and Stravinsky, but—contrary to widespread belief—the works he produced after emigrating to the West were subtly but unmistakably shaped by modernism. And while it is impossible to know what kind of music he might have written had he lived longer, it seems not at all unlikely that his style would have continued to move along the challenging course set by the Paganini Rhapsody, Third Symphony, and Symphonic Dances.

Be that as it may, one need not speculate about what Rachmaninoff might have done in order to admire what he actually did. At the very least, his work is easily comparable in quality to that of such neo-romantic modernists as Samuel Barber, Francis Poulenc, or William Walton, and the best of it grows in stature with repeated hearings. It has only been in recent years that Rachmaninoff has come to be acknowledged in the West as a first-class song composer, and the Etudes-Tableaux and Symphonic Dances now seem on their way to entering the standard repertoire.

What, then, was the matter with Rachmaninoff? For those listeners who are made uncomfortable by the straightforward expression of emotion in classical music, his name will always be a synonym for vulgarity. The English critic Edward Sackville-West, writing in 1924, spoke for them all:

Metaphorically speaking, Rachmaninoff shut himself up in a dark room, frightened himself to death, and then translated his soul-storm into the language of music. I look forward to the time when people will be ashamed to listen to Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, [Richard Strauss’s] Tod und Verklärung, and the symphonies of Gustav Mahler.

But less priggish critics (one is tempted to say, less English critics) no longer find it necessary to make excuses for Sergei Rachmaninoff, not even for the ever-popular Second and Third Concertos. These frankly emotional, impeccably crafted pieces, like the rest of his output, have stood the test of time, and while some of his works are more fully realized than others, it is now plain to see why the best of them have won—and earned—a permanent place in the hearts of listeners everywhere.

Rachmaninoff on CD: A Select Discography

Sergei Rachmaninoff made superb recordings of many of his major compositions, both as pianist and as conductor. They include the four piano concertos and Paganini Rhapsody (Naxos 8.110601 and 8.110602) and the Third Symphony, Vocalise, and Isle of the Dead (RCA Victor Gold Seal 09026-62532-2), all with the Philadelphia Orchestra, led in the concerted works by Eugene Ormandy and Leopold Stokowski.

In addition, countless other distinguished artists have recorded Rachmaninoff’s music, and most of their performances are currently available on CD.7 Here are some of the best, arranged chronologically by date of recording:

1920-21: Among the first pieces by Rachmaninoff to be recorded by other artists were four of his songs, “In the Silence of the Secret Night,” Op. 4/3 (1892), “Sing Not to Me, Beautiful Maiden,” Op. 4/4 (1893), “To the Children,” Op. 26/7 (1906), and “Before My Window,” Op. 26/10 (1906), sung in English by the lyric tenor John McCormack with violin obbligati by Fritz Kreisler. All are on John McCormack, Lieder Singer, an anthology of McCormack’s fascinatingly idiosyncratic recordings of German and Russian art songs ( Symposium 1164).

1937-43: The cultivated, warm-toned pianism of Benno Moiseiwitsch, whom Rachmaninoff called his “artistic heir,” can be heard on The Complete Rachmaninov Recordings: 1937-43, which contains the Second Concerto, the Paganini Rhapsody, and seven solos. Among the latter are Moiseiwitsch’s staggering 1939 version of Rachmaninoff’s transcription for solo piano of the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night’s Dream scherzo, recorded in a single unrehearsed take ( Appian APR 5505).

1950-51: The death of William Kapell in a 1953 plane crash brought to a premature end what would surely have been the most illustrious career of any American pianist of the 20th century. Fortunately, Kapell left behind incomparably forceful and vital recordings of Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto and Paganini Rhapsody, and both are included in the Kapell volume of Philips’s Great Pianists of the 20th Century series ( Philips 456 853-2, two CD’s).

1951: Vladimir Horowitz, whose playing of the Third Concerto Rachmaninoff preferred to his own, made three “official” recordings of that notoriously demanding piece. The second, accompanied by Fritz Reiner and a New York studio orchestra, is a locus classicus of the pianist’s febrile style ( RCA Victor Gold Seal 7754-2-RG).

1957: Six years later, Reiner and the Chicago Symphony recorded a taut, brilliantly played early-stereo performance of The Isle of the Dead. It has been reissued on CD as part of The Reiner Sound, an anthology of orchestral showpieces ( RCA Victor Living Stereo 09026-61250-2).

1958: Van Cliburn recorded the Third Concerto live at Carnegie Hall shortly after winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Unlike the composer’s own heavily cut recording, this lyrical yet commanding performance, accompanied by Kiril Kondrashin and the Symphony of the Air, is unabridged. It is part of the Cliburn volume in the Great Pianists of the 20th Century series, coupled with the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 (1913) and eight shorter solos ( Philips 456 748-2, two CD’s).

1959-67: Rachmaninoff worked closely with the Philadelphia Orchestra in his later years, dedicating his Symphonic Dances to that lush-sounding ensemble. Eugene Ormandy, Stokowski’s successor as music director, went on to make definitive stereo recordings with the orchestra of the Symphonic Dances ( Sony Classical SBK 48279) and the three symphonies ( Sony Classical SB2K 63257, two CD’s).

1971-83: The Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter’s album of selections from the Preludes, Opp. 23 and 32, and Etudes-Tableaux, Opp. 33 and 39 is among the greatest of all Rachmaninoff recordings, past or present ( Olympia OCD 337).

1974-79: The Swedish soprano Elisabeth Söderström recorded a near-complete set of Rachmaninoff’s songs with Vladimir Ashkenazy at the piano, and these sensitive performances have been deservedly acclaimed ever since their original release ( Decca/London 436 920-2, three CD’s).

1993: An unusually theatrical interpretation of the All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 (1915), a liturgical setting for unaccompanied chorus of a Russian Orthodox service, was recorded by Nikolai Korniev and the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, with Olga Borodina singing the mezzo-soprano solos ( Philips 442 344-2).

1999: David Finckel, the cellist of the Emerson String Quartet, also makes CD’s with his wife, the pianist Wu Han. Among their best performances, which can be ordered directly through www.artistled.com, is a lustrous version of the Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19 (1901), appropriately coupled with sonatas by Prokofiev and Shostakovich (ArtistLed 19901-2).

2000: Rachmaninoff’s favorite among his own works was The Bells, Op. 35, a 1913 “choral symphony” for soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus, and orchestra based on Edgar Allan Poe’s famous verses, which had previously been translated into Russian by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont. It is now available in an idiomatic performance by the Moscow State Chamber Choir and the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev ( DGG 289 471 029-2).

In addition, a representative selection of Rachmaninoff’s solo 78’s, including nineteen of his own shorter pieces and his legendary interpretations of Chopin’s B-Flat-Minor Sonata and Schumann’s Carnaval, can be heard on the Rachmaninoff volume in the Great Pianists of the 20th Century series ( Philips 456 943-2, two CD’s).

1 Rachmaninoff preferred this transliteration of his name from the original Cyrillic characters, and used it consistently from 1917 on.

2 “In Praise of Rachmaninoff,” May 1978.

3 They are Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music, a 1956 documentary biography by Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda (Indiana, 464 pp., $29.95, paper), and a revised edition of Rachmaninoff, Geoffrey Norris’s volume in the Master Musicians series (Oxford, 196 pp., $16.95, paper).

4 It is possible that Rachmaninoff suffered from Marfan’s syndrome, a hereditary disorder of the connective tissues that would not only explain the unusually large size of his hands (he could play a chord spanning an octave and a half with his left hand) but might also account for some of the painful ailments that beset him throughout his adult life, including arthritis, chronic back pain, and occasional stiffness of the hands.

5 On a few occasions, Rachmaninoff acknowledged the specific extramusical source of a purely instrumental composition. In 1930, for instance, he told the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi that the Etude-Tableau in A Minor, Op. 39/6, was based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

6 Rachmaninoff recorded the Chopin B-Flat Minor Sonata for Victor three days after giving the concert reviewed by Henderson. The performance is currently available on CD and is listed in the discography at the end of this essay, along with a sampling of his other recordings as pianist and conductor.

7 Out of print but worth looking for are Alexis Weissenberg’s 1970 set of the piano preludes, a version much admired by Herbert von Karajan (and available as recently as last year as RCA Victor Gold Seal 60568-2-RG), and a collection of seventeen of Rachmaninoff’s best-known songs, gorgeously sung by the tenor Nicolai Gedda and accompanied by Weissenberg with sometimes excessive but always startling virtuosity (briefly available in France as EMI Studio D 102573).

TERRY TEACHOUT is the music critic of Commentary and a contributor to Time magazine. He is the author of The Skeptic: A Life of H. L. Mencken, forthcoming in November from HarperCollins.

O Brilhantismo Apaixonado de Chailly

Por CRISTINA FERNANDES
^{PÚBLICO Segunda-feira, 14 de Outubro de 2002}

Apesar de ter sido fundada em 1993, a Orquestra Sinfónica de Milão Giuseppe Verdi só nos últimos anos atingiu grande projecção internacional, depois de Riccardo Chailly ter assumido o cargo de maestro titular em 1999. Outra coisa não seria de esperar ao ser confiada a um dos mais notáveis e carismáticos maestros do nosso tempo, também ele natural de Milão. O seu excelente trabalho junto da formação, na qual existe uma grande percentagem de jovens, pôde ser comprovado no passado sábado, na abertura do ciclo Grandes Orquestras Mundiais, organizado pela Gulbenkian, num concerto que contou também com a participação do pianista Nelson Freire.

O programa era simultaneamente "popular" (música bastante apelativa para um público não iniciado) e pouco usual, ao associar uma obra ilustrativa da estética construtivista e futurista dos primeiros anos da União Soviética - "A Fundição do Aço", de Alexander Mossolov -, o celebérrimo Concerto para Piano n.º 2, de Rachmaninov, e peças do italiano Ottorino Respighi. Com estéticas diversificadas (ou mesmo opostas), tratava-se em qualquer dos casos de pôr em evidência os extensos recursos de uma imensa orquestra sinfónica, funcionando, portanto, como um teste às suas potencialidades. A Orquestra de Milão correspondeu com notável segurança técnica e uma bela sonoridade (óptima fusão nos violinos; boas madeiras, com destaque para os solos de clarinete, metais pujantes, mas não estridentes...) e uma transparência de linhas e detalhes que é também uma imagem de marca da direcção de Chailly.

Com "A Fundição do Aço", de Mossolov, uma obra que traduz a pujança mecânica das máquinas através de fórmulas obsessivas, ruídos e choques, a abertura do concerto foi verdadeiramente explosiva. Tratava-se evidentemente de uma raridade e uma curiosidade, mas a verdade é que uma boa parte do público estaria ali para ouvir o Concerto para Piano n.º 2, de Rachmaninov. As expectativas não saíram defraudadas. Uma interpretação apaixonada, para a qual contribuíram quer a sensibilidade pianística de Nelson Freire, quer a resposta da orquestra à inspirada batuta de Chailly. O maestro geriu admiravelmente tensões e distensões, construindo um fluxo musical tão equilibrado como emocionante. Nos "tutti" em fortíssimo o piano foi ocasionalmente abafado, mas em contrapartida Nelson Freire ofereceu-nos momentos tocantes nas secções mais poéticas, em particular no belíssimo 2.º andamento.

A segunda parte iniciou-se com a Suite "La Boutique Fantasque", de Rephighi, baseada em motivos originais das peças para piano de Rossini e destinada a um bailado de Diaghilev que põe em cena a revolta de uma série de bonecos encerrados numa loja de brinquedos. O apurado sentido da cor e da orquestração é uma das virtudes de uma partitura tão atraente como superficial. Seria fácil que estas danças caíssem na banalidade, mas quando o guia é a musicalidade irrepreensível de Chailly o perigo desaparece... A tendência visual e programática da música de Resphighi tornou-se ainda mais vincada em "Os Pinheiros de Roma", que serviu de prova definitiva à maleabilidade da orquestra. Os longuíssimos aplausos finais foram premiados por dois "encores": uma incursão pelo orientalismo com a dança de "Belkiss, Regina di Saba", também de Resphighi, e uma trepidante "Dança Guerreira".