On March 15, I posted a blog article about this year’s Oscar winners. Today’s post is related to Geoffrey Rush, who won the best actor Oscar for his role as pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 movie Shine.
Seeing that movie was my first real awareness of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, which was composed in the summer of 1909. Popularly known as Rach 3, it has been called one of the most difficult piano pieces ever composed.
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| A small part of the score for Rach 3 |
Many of you know the
importance of bifocals. I wore bifocal eyeglasses for many years and was happy
for the ability they gave me to see things both close at hand and in the
distance clearly.
It is perhaps even
more important to have bifocal vision/understanding of life/reality. Over the
last fifteen months, I have read and written much about what some call TEOTWAWKI
(the end of the world as we know it). That is an extremely sad and depressing
topic.
It is not necessary
or healthy, though, to think only about the inevitable future. Daily we need to
use the near vision “lenses” to see and enjoy the present. There are many ways to
do that, and classical music has long been meaningful to me, regularly bringing
joy to my life.
This week I have been
enjoying the splendid musical compositions of Rachmaninoff, particularly his piano concertos
and his captivating choral music.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
was born 150 years ago today (on April 1, 1873) in Russia, and he died on
March 28, 1943, (80 years ago) in California. It is fitting to remember him and his productive
life, which lasted four days short of seventy years.
For decades I have
considered Tchaikovsky (1840~93) to be in the top three of my favorite
classical composers. More recently I have increasingly come to appreciate the
music of Rachmaninoff, who was a great admirer of Tchaikovsky.*1
Tchaikovsky, in fact,
was a father figure and a mentor for Rachmaninoff when he was a student, and
the older composer cheered for his young mentee from his box seat
at the younger man’s concerts.
There are 45 numbered “works” of Rachmaninoff (according to this
website), and 39 of those were composed in Russia
before he permanently left his birth country in 1917 because of the Bolshevik revolution and the confiscation of his
relative’s summer estate in Ivanovka that he loved so much.*2
Early in 1915, not long before the
end of the world as he knew it in Russia, Rachmaninoff composed All-Night Vigil
(or Vespers), Op. 37, a beautiful choral a cappella work. According to Chat
GPT, that composition, part of which Rachmaninoff requested to be sung at his
funeral, is
one of the greatest achievements of Russian sacred music. In fact, Rachmaninoff once said, "I have never written anything more religious, more Russian, or more honest than the Vespers."
(I learned about this choral
work in my research for this blog article, and I have greatly enjoyed hearing/seeing it sung on YouTube.)
This year there have
been several memorial concerts in appreciative remembrance of Rachmaninoff. One
of the most amazing concerts was performed by Yuja Wang at
Carnegie Hall on January 28. (Here is the link to a news article
about that concert that lasted 3½ hours.)
Several weeks ago,
June and I happened upon a YouTube video of Wang (born in Beijing in 1987) and
were impressed with her skill at the piano. It was truly amazing that she could
play everything Rachmaninoff wrote for piano and orchestra, including Rach 3, in
that Jan. 28 concert.
Last year, Yunchan
Lim, an 18-year-old South Korean man, won the 2022 Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition, and next month he makes his New York Philharmonic debut,
playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which the promotional flyer says
is “considered the Everest for pianists.”*3
Enjoying great music
is just one of many ways to savor the present and to experience joy/peace now in
spite of the dire predictions of what will likely happen this century because
of the current ecological crisis.
Let’s keep making good
use of our bifocal lenses!
_____
*1 I found it
interesting that on a list of “the best Russian composers of all time” (see here),
Tchaikovsky was number one, followed by Rachmaninoff as number two.
*2 In 2016, BBC
produced “The Joy of Rachmaninoff,” and it includes a rather lengthy segment
about Rachmaninoff at Ivanovka. If you have the time and interest, you may want
to watch that engaging documentary here on YouTube.
*3 Here and here are
links to Wang’s and Lim’s performing Rach 3, the latter at the Van Cliburn
competition last year.
I am culturally challenged especially in the area of music appreciation beyong gospel or country western, due to my specific geography. Although some geographical kin have overcome that challenge. But I do want to address bifocals, in my case trifocals. You make an important point. It is sometimes important to look at life through the close-up lens and enjoy what's available today in spite of what the far-off lenses are telling us about the future!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Charles, for your comments. Yes, I can imagine that Rachmaninoff is not particularly popular or even well known in Tulia, Texas. But you got the main point of my blog post, that is, using well the close-up lenses when what we see through the far-off lenses is highly disturbing.
DeleteThank you for this informative blog post, Leroy. Like you, I enjoy classical music, but also a variety of other genres. I've listened to Rachmaninoff's piano concerto No. 3 several times over the years.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I enjoy organ music more than piano music, so Bach of course is "King" of the organ.
However, to challenge you and your readers of this blog post, I encourage you to expand your listening horizons and consider listening to some of the 20th and 21st century classical composers, like, for example, Philip Glass and Arvo Part. Happy listening!
Thanks, Garth, for your comments -- and, yes, I also enjoy organ music more than piano music and one of my most favorite classical music compositions is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
DeleteThanks for mentioning two composers who are still living, neither of which I knew anything about. Upon investigation, I found that Glass (b. 1937) was the composer of the music for the unusual film "Koyaanisqatsi," which I saw many years ago (and who could forget seeing a film with a name like that!). And just two or three weeks ago, June and I watched (for the first time) the 2002 movie "The Hours," and I was surprised to see that Glass had composed the music for that. (But I can't agree that he is on the same level as Rachmaninoff.)
I read some about Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) on Wikipedia, but I won't make any comments about him at this time.
The first comment I received by email this morning was from Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson in Kentucky:
ReplyDelete"You made my April Fool’s Day meaningful, Leroy."
Then about an hour ago local Thinking Friend David Nelson wrote,
ReplyDelete"I was gifted by your post today by being reminded, once again, that the quality of my life is not dependent on what happens but by my response, my choices. I will listen again to some music by Rachmaninoff. Thanks, my friend."
Thanks, Leroy, for the interesting piece of music and its importance. Indeed, in these dark times, likely to get darker, we need the "near vision 'lenses'" of appreciation for music. I would add humor & laughter, friendship, work, and the other arts of literature, painting, etc. Those of us who want to do everything, know everything, and live lives of service -- i.e., those of us who bite off more than we can chew -- often need to retreat to the intimacies of human life and culture because we have no intention of going "gentle into that good night."
ReplyDeleteHere are comments from Thinking Friend John Tim Carr in California:
ReplyDelete"I enjoyed your Blog, Leroy, because I Love Music and especially Classical. My Dad, as you knew him, Leroy, got a Trumpet as partial payment for fixing a farmer's tractor. I eventually learned how to play the Trumpet and went on to form my own band and it helped pay for my college education. I was also in the band in grade & high school and was Lead Trumpet in the Orchestra, where we played Classical music-so I had music in my Heart. When my Dear Donna Sue contracted Alzheimer's, I tuned our radio to Classical music 24/7 to relax our Spirits. Thanks, Leroy, for bringing back good memories of our Favorite music!"
And yesterday I received the following email message from local Thinking Friend Bill Ryan:
ReplyDelete"Glad to see another Rachmaninoff admirer. Since first hearing a recording of Rachmaninoff's symphony no. 2, when a college a freshman, I have considered it to be the most wonderful piece of music ever composed. It has everything in it that speaks to me. And almost every Sunday morning for several years I've played Rachmaninoff's 'Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom' sung in St. Petersburg by the Lege Artis chamber choir to set the mood for the morning. I never tire of hearing either of these pieces, so thanks for bringing Rachmaninoff to the fore."
Also, last night local Thinking Friend Mary Redmon send me the following brief email message:
ReplyDelete"I just got home from visiting a friend in Tuscon. We heard a performance of Rachmaninov’s 'Vespers.' Truly wonderful."
On Facebook, I asked Norman Dunfee, who grew up in my hometown in northwest Missouri and who has been a professional musician most of his adult life, what he thought of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos. Here was his reply:
ReplyDelete"Well, after hearing them through various practice room walls way too many times, I have to say I prefer hearing the Symphonies, especially the beautiful adagio from Symphony #2, or the cello/piano sonata, or piano sonata #1. Lots of great stuff there. By the way, I just found an article that Rachmaninoff performed 6 recitals in Kansas City between 1920 and 1938."
Here is what I posted to Norman in response:
DeleteNorman, thanks for your comments. I must listen more to the pieces by Rachmaninoff that you mentioned. Thanks for sharing your preferences, which I take seriously. -- Thanks, too, for mentioning that Rachmaninoff performed six recitals in Kansas City and one in St. Joe. I didn't know that and was glad to get that information. I knew that he had to give concerts out of financial necessity when he came to the U.S., but somehow I didn't think about him coming to Missouri.
Yesterday I received the following comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for sharing these links to YouTube displays of Rachmaninoff's genius by very talented artists.
"I have long been a fan of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, but I had not heard of his Vespers until I read your post. I listened to the beginning, but ran out of time, so I hope to hear the rest later this week. I may be able to listen to all of it on Good Friday, a good day to listen to such a work.
"The Russian Orthodox Church reputedly has the most beautiful liturgy, or at least music, since most Orthodox churches use the liturgy of St John Chrysostom, at least most often, although there are a couple of other early liturgies also available, sometimes used for special occasions. As for the liturgy of St John Chrysostom, I have heard only the Greek and Serbian versions, but not the Russian."
The world as we know it is certainly ending, but I hope we can somehow muddle through without losing our art, music and literature!
ReplyDelete