Rachmaninoff, Sergei

Rachmaninoff, Sergei – Caprice bohémien pour grand orchestre (1892-94)

(b. Semyonovo, Russia, 1 April 1873 – d. Beverly Hills, United States, 28 March 1943)

for Large Orchestra
(1892-94)

Allegro vivace p.1
Lento lugubre. Alla marcia funebre p.9
Andante molto sostenuto p.15
Allegro ma non troppo p.23

Preface
In the spring of 1892 Rachmaninoff completed his graduation exercise for the Moscow Conservatory. This was the one-act opera Aleko, using a libretto provided to the students by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko (1858-1943), a colleague of Stanislavksi. The playwright adapted Pushkin’s narrative poem The Gypsies, although with many cuts and paraphrases.

Nevertheless, Rachmaninoff was tremendously inspired, both by Pushkin’s poetry and the exotic Gypsy milieu in which the narrative occurs. He began work immediately, starting with two Gypsy dances, one for women and one for men. After only two weeks of the allotted month, Rachmaninoff had completed the work in full score, surprising not only his teacher Anton Arensky (1861-1906) but also the examination board, including Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915). Rachmaninoff was awarded the Conservatory’s Great Gold Medal, becoming only the third pupil to be so honored, alongside Tanayev himself and Arseny Koreshchenko (1870-1921). When Aleko was later produced at the Bolshoi in April 1893, Tchaikovsky, whom Rachmaninoff idolized, encouraged the composer during rehearsals and made a point of publicly supporting the younger man at the premiere. Rachmaninoff’s career was officially launched.

Rachmaninoff spent his first months as a “Free Artist” – the title given to Conservatory graduates – during the summer of 1892 on the country estate of Ivan Konovalov, a rich landowner, in the countryside outside Moscow. There he gave piano lessons to the son of his host, corrected the proofs for the publication of Aleko, and – to stave off boredom – began another work on Gypsy themes. …

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