Sergei Rachmaninoff: The 'Crême de Menthe' Variation

Ever since hearing the late John Lill playing Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini at a Glasgow Proms concert on Wednesday 26 June 1974, I have been hooked on this piece. A few weeks later, I came across the boxed set of records of Vladimir Ashkenazy playing the entire cycle of Rachmaninoff’s concerted piano works on a stall at Glasgow’s legendary The Barras in the Gallowgate. His performance of the Rhapsody remains my “go-to” recording to this day. 

The Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, op.43 was Rachmaninoff’s last work for piano and orchestra. It was completed at the composer’s residence, Senar, on the shores of Lake Lucerne. The premiere performance was given by the Philadelphia Orchestra on 7 November 1934. It was conducted by Leopold Stokowski with Rachmaninoff as soloist.

The piece is not actually a ‘rhapsody’ as such but a set of variations on the well-known theme from Paganini’s 24^th Caprice for solo violin. This tune is only alluded to in the Introduction but is presented in full in the first variation. In the succeeding twenty-three variations, the theme is subject to a wide variety of transformations – “harmonically, melodically, rhythmically, atmospherically.” The famous 18^th variation is well-known as a standalone piece, often heard on Classic Fm. Rachmaninoff is supposed to have said that this “voluptuous, tender…variation was a love episode” was there to please his manager and guarantee the work’s success.” The work ends with massive chords played ‘ff,’ before the Rhapsody ends in a quiet A minor perfect cadence.

The manager and programme note annotator of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Donald L. Engle, gives a splendid story about Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini:-

“Benno Moiseiwitsch [1] …friend and admirer of Rachmaninoff, tells an anecdote about the composer's troubles in practicing the final variation for concert performance. The episode occurred in 1934 at the home of Mrs. Steinway, following one of Rachmaninoff’s superb Carnegie Hall recitals. [2] During dinner, he discussed with Moiseiwitsch a new work which he would soon introduce for the first time, a Rhapsody and Variations on a Theme by Paganini, but he seemed worried while describing it. Moiseiwitsch recounts the conversation thus:

‘I wrote the Rhapsody down,’ he said in his slow drawl, ‘and it looked good. Then I went to the piano and tried it, and it sounded good, but now, when I am practicing it for the concert, it all goes wrong!’

He was referring to the twenty-fourth variation, and his difficulty was in getting through the chord jumps, always a formidable problem in the Paganini variations. I did not know the work at all and could not offer any suggestions but just then the Steinway butler came to my rescue. He had just entered with a tray full of a wonderful array of liqueurs. Everyone helped himself to a drink, but Rachmaninoff, as was his custom, refused. Here I stepped in, saying: ‘Sergei Vasilievich, do have a glass of this beautiful crême de menthe.’

He waved the butler aside and said to me: ‘You know I never drink any alcohol.’

‘Yes, I know that’ I replied, ‘but do you know that crême de menthe is the best thing in the world for jumps.’

The 'Jumps'

‘Do you mean it?’ he asked dubiously.

‘Definitely,’ I replied. So, he called back the butler and helped himself to a generous portion of crême de menthe.

Afterwards, when we joined the ladies in the drawing room, he sketched some of his variations, including a faultless execution of the one with the jumps. I reminded him of my inspired suggestion, and he thanked me very seriously for my help.

Eyewitness accounts and Rachmaninoff's own assertions have it that he always had a glass of crême de menthe before playing the Rhapsody in public. Hence the superscription to the final variation: ‘The Crême de Menthe Variation!’”

Donald L. Engle Philadelphia Programme Notes.

Notes:

[1] Benno Moiseiwitsch was a Ukrainian-born British pianist. He made a world tour immediately after the end of the First World War. Much of his concertising was done in the United Kingdom, where he was extremely popular. He specialised in nineteenth century and “modern” romantic repertoire, especially Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

[2] In his Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor, (London Routledge 1990), Barrie Martyn gives another version of this tale. This time it is set in London, during the composer’s tour in the spring of 1935. Rachmaninoff gave the British premiere of the Rhapsody in London on 21 March 1935. Thomas Beecham conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.