Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)

Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18, is a piano concerto written in 1901 in the key of C minor. It is considered one of the greatest piano concertos ever composed, and serves as a definitive work of the late Romantic Era.

Origins

The 1897 premiere of Rachmaninoff's first symphony, though now considered a significant achievement, was derided by critics. This, combined with problems in his personal life, sent Rachmaninoff into a depression that lasted for several years. Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto heralded the official recovery from his years living under depression and writer's block.'

Orchestration

This concerto is scored for a Romantic orchestra and calls for the following:

Woodwinds

2 Flutes

2 Oboes

2 Clarinets in B-flat

2 Bassoons

Brass

4 Horns in F

2 Trumpets in B-flat

3 Trombones (2 Tenor, 1 Bass)

Tuba

Percussion

3 Timpani

Keyboards

Solo Piano

Strings

Violins I, II

Violas

Violoncellos

Double basses

Concerto

It is written in a traditional concerto form:

1. Moderato
2. Adagio sostenuto
3. Allegro scherzando

The second piano concerto is known for its difficulty and the size of the hands required to play this piece. At some parts of the concerto, the pianist is required to reach 9 whole steps (a very large interval to reach on the piano) with one hand. Rachmaninoff himself had large hands and a wide range, thus there are many chords in the concerto that are impossible for most people to reach. The opening chords are broken in nearly every recording, either rolled, or more commonly with the bottom F as a separate note.

Moderato

Before the introduction of the main theme, the concerto begins with a series of slow steeple bell-like tollings, a subtle eight bar chord progression marked poco a poco crescendo steadily rocking against a solo contrabass F. This unique introduction immediately establishes to the listener the underlying spirit of Russian Nationalism definitive of musical styles during the Late Romantic Era. The chords continue to grow with tension until eventually bursting into a torrent of rhythmic piano accompaniment to the main theme, which is primarily composed of tuplets that are sometimes 9, 8, 7, or 6 eighth notes per half-note. One of the unusual features of Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto is the notable lack of focus on the soloist during the opening of movement until the bridge passage and second theme. After the bell tollings, the main theme is introduced by the strings, clarinet, and sometimes bassoons and dramatic horns who continue to carry the melody until the piano breaks off into its first solo statement. Note that Lang Lang plays the beginning "bell-like tollings" extremely slow to imitate actual large bells ringing in Moscow.

Adagio sostenuto

The opening section of the second movement contrasts sharply with the whirlwind ending of the previous movement. It may be considered an allusion to the beginning of the first movement--a series of slow chords marked crescendo, but now merges to a slow adagio. The inclusion of an inner fast section is a technique also used by Rachmaninoff in his third piano concerto.

Allegro scherzando

The third movement is lighter in scope, but still full of contrast. It features extremely difficult technical requirements—demanding fiendishly awkward hand positions at very high speeds (beginning measure 43). This movement hosts the recurrence of the harmonic progression found in the opening bars of the piano introduction of the first movement (which is now in the orchestra) and also a theme heard in first movement as well. Its principle lyrical theme appears three times, first in B-flat, then in D-flat, and in C, the coda of the piece. It concludes with an extroverted and animated rhythmic ending with a simple "A, G, D, C" pattern that is used very effectively in the triumphant finale.

Today

No.2 is now one of the most popular piano concertos worldwide, and is performed often. Multiple recordings exist, featuring pianists such as Van Cliburn, Artur Rubinstein, Byron Janis, Sviatoslav Richter, Alexis Weissenberg, Philippe Entremont, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Chuan Li, and the composer himself.

Arrangements of the first movement have been used in the routines of several notable figure skaters, including Sasha Cohen, Fumie Suguri, Mishkutenok/Dmitriev, and Lu Chen.

In popular culture

• The concerto, most often the first movement, is mentioned favorably several times by the heroes of Ayn Rand's novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
• The adagio sostenuto is the basis for the melodic theme of the 1976 pop/rock hit All By Myself by Eric Carmen.
• The allegro scherzando theme is the basis for Frank Sinatra's 1945 Full Moon And Empty Arms.
• The concerto has also made it into several movies, including: The Seven Year Itch, where Marilyn Monroe says: "Every time I hear it I go to pieces!"; Brief Encounter; The World of Henry Orient; Rhapsody; Center Stage; and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
• The concerto was played by a character on the TV series "Smallville".

Further reading

• W.R. Anderson: Rachmaninov and his pianoforte concertos. A brief sketch of the composer and his style. London 1947
• So-Ham Kim Chung: An analysis of Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 in C Minor opus 18. Aids towards performance. Dissertation Ohio 1988

External links

• Full Score of the Concerto
• Rachmaninoff's Works for Piano and Orchestra An analysis of Rachmaninoff's Works for Piano and Orchestra including the Piano Concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody
• Geoff Kuenning article on the Concerto @ UCLA
• A breakdown of the work @ The Flying Inkpot.com