by Bart de Vries

BENDING OR NOT BENDING THE KNEE TO NEW GODS

BY BART DE VRIES Two works by two icons of Russian classical music, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, are adorning the program of this concert. Their lives show some striking parallels, but the compositions illustrate the vast difference in the development of their careers.

Although Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) and Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) may have a lot in common (Russian roots, a descent from upper middle-class musicallyinclined families, their marriages to cousins, their talent for playing the piano, and their emigration to the United States), as composers they are rather far apart. While Stravinsky is known for his adaptability and multiplicity of styles (Russian, neoclassical, serial, film music), Rachmaninoff found it difficult to adjust to the modern era. He wrote in 1939: “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.” And apparently referring to Stravinsky: “Unlike Butterfly with her quick religious conversion, I cannot cast out my musical gods in a moment and bend the knee to new ones.”

In short, while Stravinsky was and is considered to be a key figure of modernism, Rachmaninoff remained faithful to his Russian romantic roots, which reflected itself in both composers’ personal lives as well: Stravinsky connected in the USA with a host of international artists, Rachmaninoff remained in the company of Russian emigres.

Traumatized by the criticism that was bestowed upon his First Symphony after its premiere in 1897, it took Rachmaninoff ten years before he found the courage to start writing his Second. This lengthy, approximately one-hour long work, is held together by the Dies Irae theme that is presented in different guises throughout, for instance at the start of the first movement in the double basses, in the second (at the onset of the movement in the horns and at the very end in the brass section), at the end of the third movement and, in a more upbeat fashion at the beginning of the fourth. It testifies to Rachmaninoff’s Russian Orthodox upbringing.

Although for different reasons, Stravinsky was hesitant when he was asked in 1931 to write a work for violin. As a pianist, he thought he didn’t know the instrument well enough to be up for the task. However, his fellow composer Paul Hindemith convinced him of the opposite. Writing for an instrument one isn’t able to play opens the door for innovation. The resulting Violin Concerto in D major is a highlight of his neoclassical repertoire, which is indebted to the French classical composers. Neoclassicism is often juxtaposed with Romanticism, in that it diverged from the large, emotional, more or less unstructured pieces of program music that are characteristic for the preceding period. The work doesn’t have a cadenza and Stravinsky described the technical requirements for the soloist as “tame”. However, the chamber musical fabric provides the perfect backdrop for displaying the contrast between orchestra and violin, while simultaneously allowing the soloist to shine.

With his Violon Concerto, Stravinsky may have bended his knee for another god, he did respect Rachmaninoff’s work and desire to stick to his guns. Both pieces, as dissimilar as they may be, are, after all, the fruit of great musical minds that root in the same culture.