Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto

Over his lifetime, forty-four years in Russia, twenty-six in the U.S., Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff managed to produce an astounding number of well-known compositions. Among the best known of these are his four piano concertos for piano and orchestra. And among these four, it’s his second one that makes the biggest impact on me; I have revisited it again and again over the years. Recently, thanks to YouTube, the greatest gift of the gods maybe ever, I’ve had the pleasure of being able to listen to it performed by more than a dozen brilliant concert pianists.

The other day, in talking about my love of piano music with one of my favorite nephews (all my nephews, chosen or biological, are my favorite nephews), I suggested he listen to two of these performances, one by Alexander Malofeev and one by Cateen (Hayato Sumino). No sooner had I done that than I decided to see who else YouTube had made available. I came upon such a treasure that I took practically the entire day yesterday to listen to them all. Call it a form of madness, I’ve never done anything like that before. I just couldn’t get enough. Eventually it became hypnotic, and I found, instead of seeking out my favorite(s), as I expected would happen, I found that I was able to let them all just wash over me, each with their different styles and emphases. In some cases, I focused more on technical skill; in others more on lyrical style; and in yet others I grooved over the obvious close relationship between pianist and conductor, getting a feel for maybe the first time how important such a relationship must be.

Nowhere is this truer than with Nobuyuki Tsuji. He is blind, and has been from birth. Not only has he had to commit this stunningly complex (and beautiful) piece of music to memory without ever seeing a musical score; he has to perform it with an orchestra without being able to follow the conductor. How the two of them pulled this off is a true mind-blower.

There are not one but two YouTube videos of Tsuji playing the Second Piano Concerto, actually, one from a year ago and one from seven years ago.

But this Tsuji and conductor combo opened my eyes to other pianist/conductor works of marvelous cooperation and I began to find another level of appreciation for orchestral performances I had only observed in passing before. This time I found myself concentrating on how often and in what ways the two signaled their thoughts to each other as the performance progressed. Another example of how the more intently you study a piece of music or a performance, the more reward it brings. Some people argue you should just sit back and enjoy and not fuss over such details; I find the more you focus on the nitty-gritty of talent and skill the more there is to appreciate. I now understand why so many students of music spend weeks poring over musical scores and never tire of repetition.

Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto is Rachmaninoff’s comeback piece. His first symphony was a dud and the lack of an appreciative response sent him into a funk that lasted for years. Because the Second Piano Concerto had considerably more success, he bounced back – and dedicated it to his shrink. It is composed of three movements: Moderato, Adagio Sostenuto and Allegro Scherzando. It’s the second movement that is most likely to move people to tears, if music does that to you.

People have described this piece as written for people suffering from bipolar disorder. The emotion is raw and it bounces back and forth from aching melancholy to exquisite serenity. That's his appeal for me. He was a fish out of water for his time. The world was moving away from melody and romance to music that was experimental, often dissonant. Not old Sergei Vasilievich. He brought out the big guns, embraced romantic music to the fullest, stretching boundaries only to the degree he wrote for others who had his giant hands and could reach the octaves on the chords - he loved to imitate church bells - all the while recognizing most performers would not be able to keep up: for them he often wrote ossias - easier variations for those who aren't capable of handling the music as written.

But to get back to the Second Piano Concerto, in the list of comments I came across I found this one, which speaks to the power of music to touch the emotions better than I can:

My son lived 19 days and died of a heart condition. On the day he died just before surgery, knowing it would take a miracle, I played for him one last song from my mp3 player right before his surgery. I chose the 2nd movement of this piece. I wanted to blur the lines between heaven and earth. 10 years later, I don't regret the decision. 

 

Source:

I know many will find it insulting that I give such attention to just one of Rachmaninoff's many wonderful accomplishments. (Why are you not equally blown away by the Third Concerto? I can hear you say.) My focus here is not on scope, and I trust anybody who wants to can find tons of information on the man and his music. I just felt like sharing some notes with other obsessives out there.

If anybody would like to join me and take a day (or any number of days) to go through them all, I list them here. I’m sure you can find more, if you dig:


Performances of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, courtesy of YouTube:

1. Alexander Malofeev
2. Sumino (Cateen) Hayato 
3. Anna Fedorova 
4. Evgeny Kissin
5. Nobuyuki Tsuji -
6. Yuja Wang 
7. Hélène Grimaud 
8. H. J. Lim 
9. Lang Lang 
10. Khanatia Buniatishvili 
11. Sergei Rachmaninoff 
12. Vladimir Ashkenazy 
13. Daniil Trifonov 
14. Alexander Sinchuk 

15. Score to Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto


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