This ‘blog’ is always prepared to
look beyond music by British composers. It is fascinating to look at
conductors, soloists and institutions. One of the most venerable of these
latter is the Philharmonic Society which was founded in 1813. A major highlight of their history was the welcoming of Sergei Rachmaninoff on 19th
April 1899. From a British music point of view, it is interesting to note that
the great Scottish composer and academic Sir Alexander Mackenzie was the
conductor of the Society at this time. He was noted for introducing many new
works – both British and European. Reference is also made to the British
composer Luard-Selby in these notes.
The definitive and comprehensive text
on this event is Geoffrey Norris’ ‘Rachmaninoff in London’ which was published
in The Musical Times (April 1993).
At the end of 1898, Rachmaninoff
was invited to play at a London Philharmonic Concert in London the following
year. This was to be the composer’s first appearance outside of Russia. The Philharmonic Society had hoped that he
would perform his ‘new’ Piano Concerto No.2 however this work was not completed
until the following year. In fact Norris points out that the Society
minute-books show that this work was expected. The
Musical Standard (28 Jan 1899) categorically states that ‘Rachmaninoff will
make his first appearance in England, playing his new Pianoforte Concerto and
his hackneyed Prelude in C sharp minor, thus in the latter case, settling a
vexed question of its proper reading: for as a rule the Prelude is almost
unrecognisable, so differently is it played by amateur and professional
pianists.’
In return, Rachmaninoff suggested
to the Philharmonic Society that was prepared to conduct one of his orchestral
pieces. At this time that would have meant the First Symphony, the ‘Prince
Rostilav’ Overture, the ‘Caprice bohemian’ or the symphonic poem Utyos ‘The
Rock.’
Naturally the Society wanted to
hear him play the piano, so a counter suggestion was made that he play his
Piano Concerto No.1 which had been written in 1891 (it would be revised in
1917) The composed declined this suggestion, saying that he considered it a
student work. A compromise was eventually agreed where he would conduct an
orchestral work and play two piano solos.
The concert at the Queen’s Hall
on 19 April 1899 therefore included of ‘The Rock ‘which is based on literary
themes by Lermontov and Chekhov. Rachmaninoff played his ‘Elegie’ and the ubiquitous
Prelude in C# minor, both from the ‘Morceaux de fantaisie’ Op.3. They were
performed on a Bechstein piano. Other
works included at this concert were the long-forgotten ‘Idyll’ (for small
orchestra) by B. Luard-Selby, the Recitative & Cavatina, 'Slowly fades the
day’ from Borodin’s Prince Igor with Christanne Andray as soloist. The concert concluded with a performance of
Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 in C minor.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra for the
remainder of the programme.
Interestingly, Rachmaninoff’s
‘Trio élégiaque' has been performed in London on the previous day and had
received less-than-positive reviews. Norris quotes the Daily Telegraph reviewer as saying he 'would burn the scores of
half-a-dozen such oddities as the Rachmaninoff Trio, to pre-serve intact the
exquisite song-cycle which adorned the second part' which was Liza Lehmann's then
popular, but now forgotten, song-cycle In a Persian Garden (1896), It is
assumed that the composer did not attend this chamber concert.
There were a number of
reviews of the Philharmonic Society concert in the following days. These
included The Times,
the Daily Mail,
the Pall Mall Gazette,
the Musical Times and the Musical Standard. It is
fair to say the critics were less than enthusiastic about ‘The Rock’. According
to Max Harrison’s Rachmaninoff: Life, Works, Recordings published in 2008 this
was due to a ‘suspicion if not hostility’ regarding anything Russian. It was as
if ‘British music was something that needed protecting from anything foreign,
especially, it seemed, things Russian. If anything there was a touch of
‘hostility’ rather than the ‘lionisation’ that would follow in coming
years.
No comments:
Post a Comment