Romance in A Major

Program Note:

After intermission we hear again from Rachmaninoff, one of the last and best members of a 19th-century explosion of pianist-composers. His Romance in A Major (1891) for piano six hands, paired with a Waltz in the same key (1890), was written at the time of the composer’s graduation from the Moscow Conservatory and is roughly contemporaneous with the op. 11 selections heard earlier this evening. The Romance was not published during the composer’s lifetime, although we know enough details of its inception that it can be precisely dated. During his student years in Moscow, Rachmaninoff often spent summers with his relatives, the Satins, at their country estate, Ivanovka. (The property eventually became Rachmaninoff’s own when he married one of the Satin girls, and it was there that many of his greatest pieces—the Third Piano Concerto, for instance—were written.) In the summer of 1890 Rachmaninoff met and became somewhat enchanted by the three talented Skalon sisters. Their allure and musical abilities called forth the aforementioned Waltz and Romance for piano six hands. The Romance exudes a youthful rush of lyricism rather than virtuosity, as befits the dedicatees. We find all the hallmarks of late-romantic piano music: full arpeggiated accompaniment; a simple, often stepwise melodic structure centering on a few crucial pitches; and an ABA structure enlivened by embellishment on the theme’s return.

(c) Jason Stell