SIMON , IVES , AND RACHMANINOFF xylophone , tam-tam , triangle , vibraphone , tom toms , shaker , cymbals , tambourine , whip , chimes , marimba , and strings .
Charles Ives
Born October 20 , 1874 in Danbury , Connecticut Died May 19 , 1954 in New York City , New York
SYMPHONY NO . 2 [ 1897 – 1902 ]
Charles Ives spent most of his career composing bushels of music that went unperformed . The situation changed slowly . In the 1930s , a number of his songs were premiered in American and European music capitals ; in that decade and the next some of his major scores finally appeared in print and several received their premieres decades after he had written them . In 1945 , he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters , and in 1947 he was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for his Third Symphony . “ Awards and prizes are for school children , and I ’ m no longer a school boy ,” he harrumphed , keeping up appearances as the cranky Yankee he often was ; but his friends recounted that , deep down , he seemed pleased and even honored by this turning of the tide .
The New York Philharmonic scheduled the world premiere of his Second Symphony for February 22 , 1951 ( Washington ’ s Birthday ), with Leonard Bernstein conducting , in a nationally broadcast concert from Carnegie Hall . It was far from a new piece . The earliest music it includes appears to reach back to 1889 , but most of the composition took place from 1900 through 1902 , with further intensive work in 1907 and final revisions in 1910 . Ives remembered that the first movement was played in 1910 or 1911 in New York City by the Music School Settlement ’ s orchestra . After that , nothing for 40 years . As the date of the Second Symphony ’ s belated premiere approached , Ives grew increasingly nervous and in the end he did not attend the concert . His wife did go , leaving him to listen to the radio broadcast alone at home .
A characteristic element of Ives ’ style is the rampant use of musical quotations , which within a single piece can range from revival hymns and Civil War songs to patriotic anthems , popular tunes , college cheers , and famous melodies from the classics . The musicologist Clayton W . Henderson catalogued all ( or darn near all ) the borrowings in Ives ’ compositions and published them in his endlessly useful volume The Charles Ives Tunebook . He spots allusions to about 30 outside pieces in the Second Symphony ( with several pieces providing multiple borrowings ), ranging from “ Pigtown Fling ” and “ Bringing in the Sheaves ” to “ Columbia , the Gem of the Ocean ” and the Prelude to Wagner ’ s Tristan und Isolde . If , as you listen , you fleetingly sense a familiar contour , your ears are probably not deceiving you .
Instrumentation Two flutes , one piccolo , two keyboard , two piano , two bassoon , one contrabassoon , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , one tuba , one timpani , two percussion , bass drum , cymbals ( pair ), and strings .
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born April 1 , 1873 in Semyonovo , Russia Died March 28 , 1943 in Beverly Hills , California
PIANO CONCERTO NO . 2 IN C MINOR , OP . 18 [ 1900 – 1901 ]
Sergei Rachmaninoff was dealt a blow by the disastrous critical reaction to his First Symphony , unveiled in 1897 . He nearly gave up composing , but a physician who was investigating psychological therapy through hypnosis helped steer him back on track . Rachmaninoff ’ s therapy focused on achievable projects — an a cappella chorus , a love duet for an opera — and then , in 1900 , two movements of a piano concerto that had been on the back burner for several years . These were received enthusiastically at their premiere that December . “ Rachmaninoff appeared as both pianist and composer ,” a journal reported . “ Most interesting were two movements from an unfinished Second Piano Concerto . This work contains much poetry , beauty , warmth , rich orchestration , healthy and buoyant creative power . Rachmaninoff ’ s talent is evident throughout .” Within a few months he supplied the concerto ’ s missing first movement and the “ unfinished ” concerto became the finished , ever-popular Piano Concerto No . 2 . He went into a panic just prior to playing the premiere of the complete work ; but the public ’ s acclaim convinced him that he was wrong to discount his abilities .
In 1904 , this concerto earned Rachmaninoff the Glinka Prize , the first installment of this prestigious award that , in the ensuing years , would anoint an A-list of Russian compositions . Before long , he added the obligations of a touring concert pianist to his schedule . He performed his Second Concerto often
and recorded it twice — in 1924 and again in 1929 — both times with Leopold Stokowski conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra .
Notwithstanding its originality , this work stands in the tradition of the grand Romantic piano concertos , drawing especially on the models of Tchaikovsky . After rising from mysterious depths , the first movement lets loose the first of the many striking themes that characterize this concerto , the initial one being richly intoned by the strings . In fact , most of the melodies in this movement are entrusted first to the orchestra rather than to the solo piano , which , to an unusual degree for a concerto , plays a sometimes ornamental or obbligato role . It is surely a virtuoso concerto , and yet Rachmaninoff seems intent on disguising the virtuoso element , even to the extent of banishing a first-movement cadenza , the span in which a soloist would especially dazzle . The second movement is imbued with a sense of reverie , and the third boasts a hummable theme that , in 1945 , would be famously transformed into the pop-song hit “ Full Moon and Empty Arms .”
Instrumentation Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , one tuba , one timpani , two percussion , bass drum , cymbals ( pair ), and strings .
Yaseen Jones
MAR-APR 2024 / OVERTURE 49