Steven Osborne, piano, March 2021 - Library of Congress

Friday, March 19, 2021 ~ 8:00 pmThe Library of Congress

Virtual Event

STEVEN OSBORNE

The William and Adeline Croft Memorial Fund

CONCERTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 2020-2021

The WILLIAM AND ADELINE CROFT MEMORIAL FUND was established in 1981 to enhance the concert series, to enlarge the audience for chamber music through broadcasting and recording, and to enrich the Library's collections of musical rarities. Adeline Jewel Croft, a pianist and teacher, and her husband William were for more than forty years regular and enthusiastic members of the audience at the Library of Congress.

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STEVEN OSBORNE

•Program

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)Suite bergamasque (1890, rev. 1905)

1) Prélude2) Menuet3) Clair de lune4) Passepied

Images (oubliées) (1894)1) Lent (mélancolique et doux)2) Souvenir du Louvre3) Quelques aspects de "Nous n'irons plus au bois" parce qu'il fait un

temps insupportable

The Library of CongressVirtual Event

Friday, March 19, 2021 — 8:00 pm

The William and Adeline Croft Memorial Fund

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Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)Prelude in D minor (op. posth.) (1917)Fragments (1917)Oriental Sketch (1917)

Sergei Rachmaninoff / Steven OsborneNunc dimittis from the All-Night Vigil, op. 37 (1915)

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Piano Sonata no. 1 in D minor, op. 28 (1907)I. Allegro moderato—Meno mosso—Allegro—Tempo I—Tempo

precedente—Moderato—Più mosso—Tempo I—Poco più mosso— Tempo I—Poco più mosso—Più vivo—Tempo I—Poco più mosso— Più mosso—Allegro—Moderato—Più mosso—Tempo I—Più mosso—Tempo I—Allegro molto—Moderato

II. Lento—Più mosso—Tempo IIII. Allegro molto—Meno mosso—Un poco meno mosso—Moderato—

Più mosso—Più vivo—tempo precedente—Più vivo—Più vivo— Tempo I—Meno mosso (Come prima)—Meno mosso—Moderato— Più mosso—Meno mosso—Tempo precedente

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About the ProgramClaude Debussy, Suite bergamasque

One of Debussy's most familiar works is the Suite bergamasque, composed in 1890 and revised in 1905 for publication. Debussy revered Rameau, Couperin, and the harpsichordists of the French Baroque, and his admiration shows in the form and style of this work. The term 'bergamasque' has many interesting connections, among them to the Bergamo province of Italy northeast of Milan, and the provincial city Bergamo. The mischievous character Harlequin of the commedia dell'arte originated in Bergamo. He was meant to portray the characteristics of the people who live there, the 'bergamasques,' and their supposedly rustic manner. The term refers also to a local courtship dance and its accompanying music. A number of early dance pieces and sets of music bear the title 'bergamasque.'

The Prélude opens the suite with an expansive figure that is lyrical but

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assertive, while various flourishes and ornaments remind one of French harpsichord suites of the past. The Menuet retains the triple meter and moderate tempo of earlier minuets, but by the second 6-bar phrase has broken with the standard form. In an extended central section Debussy treats thematic material almost like a sonata form development, with modulations to several distant keys. A dramatic change of texture delineates this development material until the very end where the delicate theme in A minor returns. In counterpoint to the surrounding movements and in place of a typical slow dance movement, Clair de lune provides a moment of repose and expressive beauty. As one of the most famous pieces of Debussy's music, it hardly needs introduction, except to say that the title is a reference to the poem of the same title written in 1869 by Paul Verlaine, a French Symbolist poet. The poem evokes a mysterious time from the past, the tone of which Debussy manages to capture in sound with modal inflections and colorful harmonies.

Votre âme est un paysage choisi Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.1

Your soul is a chosen landscape Bewitched by masquers and bergamaskers, Playing the lute and dancing and almost Sad beneath their fanciful disguise.2

This poem seems to have fascinated Debussy, since he also set it twice for voice and piano. Gabriel Fauré also set this poem for voice and piano, and it is interesting to compare both musical conceptions of the same poem. The final movement, Passepied, was originally a Pavane, but Debussy changed it just before publication, probably revising it substantially to reflect changes in meter and character that would have been required. As the final movement, it is the quietest piece in the set, restrained and dignified. Much of the dynamic markings range between piano and even quieter. Staccato articulations make this movement especially delicate and dance-like.

•1 Verlaine, Paul, One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine: a Bilingual Edition, Norman R. Shapiro, trans. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 28-29. First stanza.2 Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder, published by Faber, provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder (www.oxfordlieder.co.uk.

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Claude Debussy, Images (oubliées)

The adjective oubliées was not conferred on this set of piano pieces by the composer. Claude Debussy composed in total three sets of pieces of Images for solo piano: Images (1894) made up of Lent (mélancolique et doux); Souvenir du Louvre; and Quelques aspects de "Nous n'irons plus au bois" parce qu'il fait un temps insupportable; Images, Series 1 (1901-1905) which contains Reflets dans l'eau, Hommage à Rameau, and Mouvement; and Images, Series 2 (1907/1908) which consists of Cloches à travers les feuilles, Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut, and Poissons d'or. Debussy also composed a set for orchestra, simply titled Images.

The set on this program is the first, which was not published in full until 1978, when it was given the title Images (oubliées) or, Forgotten images, by publishing company Theodore Presser, to avoid confusion with the other sets, and also since 84 years had elapsed between composition and publication. But perhaps it was not a matter of forgetfulness. The second piece in this set was actually first published in the Parisian periodical Le Grand Journal du lundi, supplément du 17 February 1896.3 It differs only slightly from the Sarabande in the suite Pour le piano, which Debussy began in 1894 and finished in 1901. Thematic material from the third piece later appeared in 1903 in another suite, Estampes (which means "prints"), in a piece titled Jardins sous la pluie. It is not unusual for a composer to borrow material from her/himself, and Roy Howat has found thematic links from parts of this suite in a number of later works.4 One wonders why this first set might have been set aside, but fortunately it was "remembered," published, and now we are able to enjoy hearing it.

Debussy dedicated this first set of Images to pianist Yvonne Lerolle (1877-1944), the daughter of his good friend, painter, and art collector Henry Lerolle (1848-1929). Henry was the brother-in-law of composer Ernest Chausson (1855-1899); Yvonne was Chausson's niece and a piano pupil of Alfred Cortot. Later, Cortot acquired the manuscript from her.5 Debussy's circle of friends and acquaintances ((which included among other artists Degas and Renoir, and Symbolist poets Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), and Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925)), nurtured his interests in art and poetry. His keen interest in the visual arts is revealed in the titles he chose for many piano works.

3 De Médicis, François and Steven Heubner, eds., Debussy's Resonance (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2018), 418, n. 30.4 Howat, Roy, The Art of French Piano Music: Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Chabrier (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009), 199.5 Ibid., 198.

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These colorful pieces are simple in conception and structure; the first is slow, melancholy, and expressive; the second is in the manner of a slow, elegant dance; and the third is fast and exciting, with harp and bell effects at the end. Debussy did not restrict himself to the traditional materials of music. It is especially appropriate to speak of a tonal palette in his case, which included diatonic, modal, whole tone, octatonic, and pentatonic scales, as well as elements from other musical systems.

Many pianists have cherished Debussy's piano music for its atmosphere and evocative swaths of sound. Debussy had the ability to coax previously unimagined sonorities from an instrument, conjuring colors and, aptly, images in sound. Pianist Claudio Arrau (when approaching his 80th birthday) said of Debussy's music: "I'm very much attracted to Debussy right now. To the spiritual meaning of his music. Sometimes he's played just for the sound, for the atmosphere. But he was one of the great geniuses. His music is absolutely unique. It's like the music of another planet."6 It was ground-breaking and new. Debussy himself famously wrote in an essay from 1913 that "The century of aeroplanes has a right to music of its own!"7 Paul Roberts explains the qualities of Debussy's music that are so difficult to put into words: "Sound, atmosphere, 'fairy-tale' charm, so characteristic of Debussy, are not finally the reasons for playing and listening to this music, for being drawn to it and possessed by it. Just as the painters of his epoch saw what had hitherto been unseen, so Debussy heard what had been unheard. His images and allusions were, paradoxically, a means of provoking an intensity of listening. In a voice that was often subdued, he distilled and communicated the essence of the external world and touched the core of human experience."8

Laura Yust Senior Cataloguing Specialist Library of Congress, Music Division

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6 Roberts, Paul, Images: the Piano Music of Claude Debussy (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1996), 283.7 Strunk, Oliver and Leo Treitler, eds., Source Readings in Music History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998), 1433.8 Roberts, 283.

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Sergei Rachmaninoff, Prelude in D minor (op. posth.), Fragments, Oriental Sketch, & Nunc dimittis from the All-Night Vigil

To open the Rachmaninoff section of the program, Osborne has aggregated a selection of four rarely-heard miniatures. The Library of Congress possesses the holograph manuscripts for three of these works in its Sergei Rachmaninoff archive. The Oriental Sketch and Fragments are part of the same manuscript, with Fragments (originally identified by its tempo marking of Andante semplice before its publication in 1919 as Fragments) coming after the Oriental Sketch. They were dated November 14 and 15, respectively, presumably in the Old Style, which would convert to November 27 and 28 in the New Style of dating. The same archive also holds the manuscript of the posthumous prelude in D minor, only published in 1973.

The timing of the composition of these three works is significant. They were all finished rapidly after Rachmaninoff had finished revising his first piano concerto in November of 1917—a year of upheaval for Rachmaninoff and the world. Seeing that his estate had already been looted in his absence as the Russian Revolution commenced, Rachmaninoff sought to leave Russia, finding his way to Stockholm with his family just before the close of the year, and living abroad thereafter. In addition to the revolution, the global disaster of World War I was ongoing at the time of their composition.

The fourth selection in this group of rarities was also composed during these turbulent times. Earlier in the war, in 1915, Rachmaninoff produced his All-Night Vigil, op. 37, also known as Vespers—one of his great unaccompanied choral works. Osborne adapted this version for solo piano from the vocal score.

Prelude in D minor, op. posth.

Rachmaninoff’s preludes rank among his finest piano works; from the C-sharp minor prelude of 1892’s op. 3 that, annoyingly for the composer, became his musical calling card, to the op. 23 set from 1901-3 and the op. 32 set of 1910, these pieces are little planets unto themselves populated by the denizens of Rachmaninoff’s rich imagination. It is unclear why Rachmaninoff did not choose to publish his extra D-minor prelude composed in 1917. It may be that he never found the right collection of pieces in which to include it, and life circumstances (primarily the need for income from performances) severely curtailed his compositional

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output after that point.

For a short piece with relatively simple material, the posthumously published prelude nevertheless leaves its mark. Key features include oscillating chords and rising chromatic lines. The primary melody consists of a note that is repeated multiple times before unraveling, only to spin back into place. It is these two aspects of the melody, the chromatic countermelody plus the oscillation of the accompaniment that provide the shape for the piece, as the variability in texture derives from different combinations of these features. For instance, two-thirds into the piece the “unraveling” melody turns into an accompaniment that covers the bottom half of the keyboard while an augmented form of the oscillation pattern occurs above it. The economical use of the motives and concepts introduced at the opening of the piece makes the variants feel natural, and ultimately Rachmaninoff returns in the brief coda to the repeated-note section of the melody, and in particular a campana effect introduced near the beginning of the work. One can liken this piano effect to the striking of a bell and the subsequent blossoming of the sound within that resonant space, activated by movement inside of the registral extremes:

Example 1

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Prelude in D minor, op. posth.: m.3

The prelude concludes with three tolls, perhaps in remembrance of the Russia Rachmaninoff knew he had to leave behind.

FragmentsFragments is a brief but compelling piece, hinting with its title that there may have been something more here, but this is all that remains. It is not a singular fragment, but several juxtaposed ideas, each of which leaves you wondering what might have happened with deeper exploration. It is in a ternary form, with the harmonies of the first section belying the Andante semplice marking at the top of the piece. The harmonic choices are beguiling, especially in the directness of the section’s cadences. The

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music has the air of a Medtnerian skazka, an incomplete dream-tale. A central faster section immediately implicates Rachmaninoff as the composer with its figuration, but it is almost as if the middle stanza of a different poem has been dropped in the middle. The music closes with a return to the Andante semplice material, with a slight but significant modification to its penultimate measure.

Oriental SketchThe Oriental Sketch is a moto perpetuo miniature, a happy creation that allows its melodic material to emerge from the churning accompaniment. It is something of a Chemin de fer affair, evocative of a vigorous ride on the rails with an iron steed. As annotator Robert Matthew-Walker put it, the “…word ‘Oriental’ in the title has nothing to do with Eastern folk-music; among family and friends it was nicknamed the ‘Orient Express…’ which was likened to the great transcontinental locomotive by Fritz Kreisler.”9 It has moments of lyricism that overlay the ever-moving music, mimicking perhaps the eye being drawn wistfully to the beauty of the passing vistas before snapping back to the bustle of the here and now. Rachmaninoff himself recorded this charming piece, a world apart from the other two 1917 pieces presented here.

Nunc dimittisRachmaninoff composed his All-Night Vigil10 swiftly in the early months of 1915. It was a remarkable achievement in the midst of the chaos engulfing the globe, and displays Rachmaninoff’s compositional versatility as a composer of choral music. Rachmaninoff dedicated the work in memoriam to the theorist Stepan Smolensky, who had been a mentor of his at the Moscow Conservatory and had introduced him to the body of sacred music.11 Set in 15 sections, the portion that Osborne has adapted for solo piano is the fifth, entitled Nunc dimittis. The Nunc dimittis text is also known as the “Song of Simeon” and comes from the Gospel of Luke (2:29-32). It is essentially a plea to allow the faithful servant to die in peace, and Rachmaninoff thought highly enough of this setting to desire it to be sung at his funeral (this, unfortunately, was not possible).12

In addition to its inherent beauty, the Nunc dimittis is famed for the range

9 Matthew-Walker, Robert, liner notes to Howard Shelley’s recording of Rachmani-nov: The Early Piano Works (Hyperion, CDA66198, 1987), p.4.10 Ivan Moody points out that while commonly known called Vespers, Rach-maninoff’s setting is also inclusive of Matins and First Hour services, so is inclusive of Vespers and more properly referred to as the All-Night Vigil. Moody, Ivan, liner notes to Rachmaninov: Vespers, Corydon Singers and Matthew Best (Hyperion, CDA66460, 1991), p.1.11 Ibid., 2.12 Ibid.

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required of the bass voices at its close:

Example 2

Sergei Rachmaninoff, All-Night Vigil, op. 37, Nunc dimittis: final three measures, bass parts

Thus it is that the Nunc dimittis offers simultaneously one of the highest and lowest points of Rachmaninoff's output.

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Sergei Rachmaninoff, Piano Sonata no. 1 in D minor

Rachmaninoff’s first piano sonata was composed in Dresden, where the composer was finding more peace and quiet in which to compose for a few months each year than he could get in Russia.13 At the end of 1906 Rachmaninoff “…had three works in mind, all to be kept secret: a symphony that would wipe away the stain of his first; a piano sonata with an unstated Faust program; and a doubly secret project...”14 The symphony was to be the successful second symphony, the piano sonata is the first and less-well-known sonata presented as part of this program, and the extra-secret project, incidentally, was the unfinished opera Monna Vanna, of which the Library of Congress holds over 100 pages of material in its collection.

Notoriously self-critical and prone to sensitivity about the assessment of his music by others, Rachmaninoff was perhaps self-deprecating to a fault about his compositional ability, and much of his editing tended to involve the excision of music, arguably not always to the benefit of the work. In the case of the first piano sonata, Rachmaninoff sought the advice of his friend Nikita Morozov to help him iron out the formal attributes of his

13 Norris, G., “Rachmaninoff [Rakhmaninov, Rachmaninov], Serge,” Grove Music Online.14 Bertensson, Sergei and Jay Leyda, Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2001), 130-1.

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work. After a vague description of what he was up to, Rachmaninoff asks, “What must I do next? What sort of form is this that I’m writing? Is there such a form? Must I really, after all I’ve said, go into a Coda? This doesn’t seem to satisfy me. Must there be some further 3rd Theme? Of course this is one of those accursed Rondo forms, and I don’t know a single one of them. Be kind and write me an answer at once to this question.” He goes on to ask for examples from Beethoven rondos.15 These are interesting questions for a number of reasons—most significantly because of the implications with respect to multimovement appearances of material as well as the integration of thematic elements in other themes. One senses that Rachmaninoff felt that he should be beholden to particular traditions in the realm of the symphony and sonata, but that his instincts might lead him in other directions. In this plea for help there seems to be both a desire to assimilate and a desire to go his own way.

As composition of the sonata continued, Rachmaninoff’s confidence seemed to grow, and he wrote again to Morozov that “…[his] second work is slightly better than the Symphony, but still is dubious in quality.”16 In another letter he continued: “Now I’m completing a piano sonata. Yesterday I finished writing the second movement. Only the last movement is left to do… Two days ago I played the sonata for Riesemann, and he doesn’t seem to like it. Generally I’ve begun to notice that no matter what I write lately—nobody likes it. And I myself often wonder; maybe it is all nonsense. The sonata is certainly wild and interminable. I think it takes about 45 minutes. I was lured into this length by its guiding idea. This is—three contrasting types from a literary work [Faust]. Of course no program will be indicated, though I begin to think that the sonata would be clearer if the program were revealed. Nobody will ever play this composition, it’s too difficult and long and possibly—and this is the most important—too dubious musically. At one time I wanted to make a symphony of this sonata, but this seemed impossible because of the purely pianist style in which it is written.”17

The implications of this statement about a Faustian program for the sonata are significant and tantalizing, and instantly Liszt’s Faust Symphony comes to mind, organized as three “character sketches” after Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles. While the particulars of such a program are not definitive in Rachmaninoff’s sonata, there are some conceptual similarities between the two works, different as they are, that are especially evident in the third movements. Namely, the Mephistophelean principle

15 As quoted in ibid., 132-3.16 Ibid., 137.17 Ibid., 138.

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of distortion is applied to existing material as a form of development and recontextualization; we recognize the musical impulse as being derivative but situated anew. Another way of saying this is that the devil is in the details of what you already know.

Rachmaninoff tried out the sonata on an elite group of friends: Georgy Catoire, Lev Conus, Nikolai Medtner and Konstantin Igumnov, who wanted to perform the piece. Igumnov ended up offering detailed commentary, and Rachmaninoff responded to the criticism with a note about its publication: “When you see the music you will, of course, notice all in which I agreed with you and all in which I didn’t. The only thing left for me is to thank you heartily for your comments.”18 Ultimately, by Rachmaninoff’s estimate, he cut about ten minutes of music from the piece. Unfortunately the manuscript of the original version of the sonata is not extant, so a comparison cannot be made with the version Rachmaninoff ultimately published.

Igumnov premiered the sonata in October, 1908, alongside the op. 22 Variations on a Theme of Chopin. While Igumnov’s playing was praised, Rachmaninoff’s new works were found somehow lacking. In the review in the Russkiye Vedomosti, the “…new sonata appeals with its mastery of form, its abundance of interesting details, just as, for example, do the piano concerto and the cello sonata, but it does not have their freshness of fantasy, nor comparable thematic inspiration. Besides, in it Rachmaninoff can occasionally be heard repeating himself—which would be no calamity if these repetitions were 'in a finer edition,' but this one cannot say.”19 This is where criticism starts to become tricky—everyone is certainly entitled to their opinions and should express them, and it is easier to do so in the context of a body of work. With a composer whose music is so instantly recognizable as Rachmaninoff’s is, it is sometimes more fruitful to take a step back and listen to the piece afresh, without bringing to the fore one’s awareness of a comparable theme or similar gambit in the corpus of the composer’s work. Rachmaninoff’s first piano sonata is not often performed—in part due to its substantial difficulty—and stands to benefit from an assessment on its own terms.

A handful of motivic ideas and harmonic relationships are central to the entire work, and most are on display from the very first pages of the sonata. As big as the sonata is, its principles are integrated in such a way as to yield taut structures at local and global levels. To list a few of the primary ideas: there is the melodic oscillating fifth, pairs of cadential

18 Ibid., 145.19 Ibid., 152-3.

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chords, oscillating seconds, and rising/descending chromatic figures. Enumerating them like that does not seem fruitful given how broad those categories appear, but it is the manner in which Rachmaninoff enlists them in his musical argument that makes their status and import clear.20

At the very opening of the piece we hear the melodic fifth motive juxtaposed with a two-chord cadence. In Example 3b we see this two-chord figure move to E-flat major, in a move that has harmonic significance for the material throughout the sonata:

Example 3a)

Rachmaninoff, Piano Sonata no. 1, op. 28, I: mm.1-5

b)


In a manner that is a bit reminiscent of the Schubert G-major sonata’s opening (D894), we don’t hear a blatantly lyrical line for a time. When it does appear in measure 15, it feels fragmentary:

20 Melodic shapes, for instance, impact harmonic moves, and vice versa. We will hear how D minor sounds next to E-flat major, and ultimately how D to E-flat is significant melodically, as just one of many examples.

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Example 4a)


Within this brief passage there are a number of important ideas, including the D-A fifths/fourths (labeled “x”), a melodic idea of an ascending whole step to a third (labeled “y”), and an oscillating whole step (labeled “z”). We will see that Rachmaninoff transforms these components throughout the sonata, as he does for instance in Example 4b:

Example 4b)


A new, chant-like idea in F major appears at measure 73, wrapped in a cloud of sound around the melodic voice. It is easier to visualize this melody when it appears shortly thereafter, and it is also easier to see the relationships between the D (this time a melodic D in the context of F major) and E-flat:21

21 Consider this move in light of the harmonic shift presaged in Examples 3a and 3b.

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Example 5


The emphasis on open fifths as introduced in Example 3a is also clear in the accompaniment here. Throughout the movement Rachmaninoff’s use of beautiful and mysterious chromatic gestures evolves from accompaniment to countermelody to featured melodic component, and these chromatic elements offer numerous opportunities for transformation that Rachmaninoff takes. In addition to their melodic appearances, their harmonic implications have been there since the initial D minor/E-flat major nexus introduced on the first page; it is therefore both fitting and effective that we hear the chant theme in D-flat major before a return to D minor in one of the movement’s most remarkable transitions. While the sound world is very clearly that of Rachmaninoff, another Lisztian comparison arises in the figuration, with passagework and an ethos reminiscent of the earlier composer’s Dante sonata (Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata). After a final iteration of the chant theme, the movement ends quietly with a return to the cadential chords and fifths.

The second movement opens with an expansion of the fifths idea, this time with four members of the set that lead to F major as the principal tonality for the movement:

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Example 6

Rachmaninoff, Piano Sonata no. 1, op. 28, II: mm.1-3

The writing here reminds us that Rachmaninoff had only recently completed his magnificent op. 23 preludes, and the fourth of that set in particular bears a small kinship to this movement. But the material here is integrated with both the first and the final movement;22 in fact, the opening of the main theme is actually given at a pivotal moment in the first movement. Compare these two appearances:

Example 7a)


b)


22 While I won’t include an example here, there are relationships between the larger stepwise melodic shapes in the second movement and secondary lyrical segments of the final movement.

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There is a striking moment following a cadenza where the relationship between the second movement’s main theme and the A-D-E-flat group from the first movement is laid bare beneath a hypnotic accompaniment:

Example 8


The second movement intensifies with a series of trills before a calming coda brings it to a close. At the opening of the Allegro molto finale, the open fifths are again featured, but now as part of a driving accompaniment beneath a rising scalar theme:

Example 9

Rachmaninoff, Piano Sonata no. 1, op. 28, III: mm.1-4

Eventually a secondary dotted-rhythm theme is introduced that will grow in importance, and we start to hear more and more references to the first movement’s two-chord idea; by Example 10b it has transformed into something new:

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Example 10a)


b)


A setting of the first-movement theme from Example 4 appears at measure 189, followed by a stunning transformation of the music that floats above the undulating and oscillating accompaniment beneath it. Compare the upper melody in Example 11 to the upper line of Example 4:

Example 11


This melody, as it continues, is one of Rachmaninoff’s most tender creations, and the heart skips a beat with each appearance of this mysterious setting. Just before the return of the movement’s opening material, Rachmaninoff gives us what we may have expected from the

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dotted-rhythm idea introduced earlier—a statement of a variant of the first phrase of the Dies irae outlined in the bass, leading to the return of Tempo I:

Example 12a)


b)

Dies irae melody variant, extracted

Given Rachmaninoff’s predilection for the inclusion of the Dies irae in so many of his major works, it is unsurprising that a work such as the sonata, with its Faustian origin, would feature a version of the melody at such a pivotal point. There is a change in the feel of the music at this stage, as Rachmaninoff appears to be building to a climax in D major perhaps. Instead the music pushes toward a B-flat major arrival at the return of the chant theme at the loudest volume indicated in the sonata, before resolving to D minor and the open fifths:

Example 13


It is a remarkable conclusion to a work that is worthy of greater attention than it has received. While we may never see what cuts were made to the

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sonata in order to make our own assessment of Rachmaninoff’s editorial decisions, the version that Rachmaninoff published is a significant accomplishment, underappreciated perhaps in part because of the composer’s own insecurities about it. But given the attention of more modern pianists like Steven Osborne, a critical period of Rachmaninoff’s development as a composer can be illuminated and enjoyed.

David Plylar Senior Music Specialist Library of Congress, Music Division

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About the ArtistWinner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2013, pianist Steven Osborne is one of Britain’s most treasured musicians. Celebrated for his insightful interpretations, his musicality and technique, Osborne is much sought after as soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. His residencies at London’s Wigmore Hall, Antwerp’s deSingel, the Bath International Music Festival, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and, this season, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, are testaments to the respect with which he is held.

Described by The Observer as “always a player in absolute service to the composer,” Osborne recently released a much praised recording of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas for Hyperion. During the Beethoven anniversary year, Osborne will present his illuminating take on these late works across the UK, the Far East, and North America as well as part of his RSNO residency for which he will also play Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27. Other orchestral highlights during the new season include more Beethoven and Mozart with the Finnish Radio Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as Ravel with the BBC Philharmonic and Brahms with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.

Osborne has given recitals in all the UK’s most prestigious venues as well as internationally at the Musikverein and Wiener Konzerthaus, Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and Carnegie Hall. His carefully devised programs this season juxtapose Schubert and Rachmaninoff in solo recitals across the UK including a performance at Wigmore Hall; and Fauré, Poulenc, Debussy, Stravinsky and Ravel in joint recitals with Paul Lewis with whom he tours the UK.

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For his fourth International Piano Series concert at the Royal Festival Hall, Osborne plays Vingt regards sur l’enfant- Jésus by Messiaen, another composer with whom he been closely associated since the release of his 2002 recording.

In 2020, Osborne released Prokofiev’s “War Sonatas” marking his 30th recording for Hyperion. A label artist since 1998, Osborne’s recordings have accumulated numerous awards in the UK, France, Germany and the USA including two Gramophone Awards, three Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Awards and a clutch of Recordings of the Year from The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times and The Sunday Times.

Osborne studied with Richard Beauchamp at St. Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and Renna Kellaway at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He won first prize at the prestigious Clara Haskil International Piano Competition (1991) and the Naumburg International Competition (1997), and was one of the first BBC New Generation Artists. Osborne is Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Patron of the Lammermuir Festival and, as of 2014, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

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Upcoming Events in March & AprilVisit loc.gov/concerts for more information

Friday, March 26, 2021 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Dudok Quartet Amsterdam

Music by Webern, Ligeti and BrahmsVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/dudok-quartet-amsterdam.html)

Additional video content available starting at 10am on 3/26/20

Friday, April 9, 2021 at 8:00 pm [Concert]MET Orchestra Musicians, Program I

Music by Mozart, Puccini, Barber and VerdiVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/met-orchestra-april9.html)


Friday, April 16, 2021 at 8:00 pm [Concert]New World Symphony, Program II

Music by Walton, Tillis and DvořákVirtual Event

(https://loc.gov/concerts/new-world-symphony-april16.html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 4/16/21

Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Terri Lyne Carrington

The New StandardsVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/terri-lyne-carrington.html)


Friday, April 30, 2021 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord

Music by J.S. Bach, J.C.F. Fischer, Andriessen & MartinůVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/mahan-esfahani.html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 4/30/21

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KEEP CHECKING LOC.GOV/CONCERTS FOR UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING PROGRAMMING!

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You can still catch all of the (Re)Hearing Beethoven Festival!

See loc.gov/concerts/beethoven.html for the full lineup, including performances, lectures and conversations.

Friday, December 4, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]"The President's Own" United States Marine Band

Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 3 and 7Virtual Event

(https://loc.gov/concerts/presidents-own-marine-band.html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/4/20

Saturday, December 5, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Borromeo String Quartet

Music by Beethoven: Symphony no. 8, op. 130 & 133Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/borromeo-nicholas-cords.html)


Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]ZOFO

Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 6Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/zofo.html)

Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/10/20BONUS: This concert will be available as an augmented reality

experience for a limited period of time!

Friday, December 11, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Verona String Quartet and Adam Golka

Music by Beethoven: Hammerklavier Sonata in Two VersionsVirtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/beethovens-hammerklavier.

html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/11/20

Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Ran Dank & Soyeon Kate Lee

Music by Liszt and Beethoven: Symphony no. 9Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/dank-lee.html)


Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 8:00 pm [Concert]Christopher Taylor

Music by Beethoven: Symphonies 1, 2 and 5Virtual Event (https://loc.gov/concerts/christopher-taylor.html)Additional video content available starting at 10am on 12/17/20

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Concerts from the Library of CongressThe Coolidge Auditorium, constructed in 1925 through a generous gift from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, has been the venue for countless world-class performers and performances. Gertrude Clarke Whittall presented to the Library a gift of five Stradivari instruments which were first heard here during a concert on January 10, 1936. These parallel but separate donations serve as the pillars that now support a full season of concerts made possible by gift trusts and foundations that followed those established by Mrs. Coolidge and Mrs. Whittall.

Concert StaffCHIEF, MUSIC DIVISION

ASSISTANT CHIEF

SENIOR PRODUCERS FOR CONCERTS AND

SPECIAL PROJECTS

SENIOR MUSIC SPECIALIST

MUSIC SPECIALISTS

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER

SENIOR RECORDING ENGINEER

ASSISTANT ENGINEER

PRODUCTION MANAGER

CURATOR OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

PROGRAM DESIGN

PROGRAM PRODUCTION

Susan H. Vita

Jan Lauridsen

Michele L. GlymphAnne McLean

David H. Plylar

Kazem AbdullahClaudia Morales

Donna P. Williams

Michael E. Turpin

Sandie (Jay) Kinloch

Solomon E. HaileSelassie

Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford

David H. Plylar

Michael Munshaw

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Support Concerts from the Library of CongressSupport for Concerts from the Library of Congress comes from private gift and trust funds and from individual donations which make it possible to offer free concerts as a gift to the community. For information about making a tax-deductible contribution please call (202-707-5503), e-mail ( [email protected]), or write to Jan Lauridsen, Assistant Chief, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-4710. Contributions of $250 or more will be acknowledged in the programs. All gifts will be acknowledged online. Donors can also make an e-gift online to Friends of Music at www.loc.gov/philanthropy. We acknowledge the following contributors to the 2020-2021 season. Without their support these free concerts would not be possible.

GIFT AND TRUST FUNDS

Julian E. and Freda Hauptman Berla FundElizabeth Sprague Coolidge FoundationWilliam and Adeline Croft Memorial FundDa Capo FundIra and Leonore Gershwin FundIsenbergh Clarinet FundIrving and Verna Fine FundMae and Irving Jurow FundCarolyn Royall Just FundKindler Foundation Trust FundDina Koston and Robert Shapiro Fund for

New MusicBoris and Sonya Kroyt Memorial FundWanda Landowska/Denise Restout Memorial FundKatie and Walter Louchheim FundRobert Mann FundThe Sally Hart and Bennett Tarlton

McCallum FundMcKim FundNorman P. Scala Memorial FundKarl B. Schmid Memorial FundJudith Lieber Tokel & George Sonneborn

FundAnne Adlum Hull and William Remsen

Strickland FundRose and Monroe Vincent FundGertrude Clarke Whittall FoundationVarious Donors Fund

BEQUESTSElmer CerinBarbara GanttSorab K. Modi

DONOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Producer ($10,000 and above)The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.DutchCultureUSA Frederic J. and Lucia HillThe Netherland-America FoundationAllan J. ReiterRevada Foundation of the Logan FamilyAdele M. Thomas Charitable Foundation,

Inc.Mallory and Diana Walker

Underwriter ($2,500 and above)Geraldine OstroveJoyce E. PalmerWilliam R. and Judy B. SloanGeorge Sonneborn and Rosina C. IpingThe George and Ruth Tretter Charitable Gift

Fund, Carl Tretter, Trustee

Benefactor ($1000 and above)AnonymousWilliam D. AlexanderBill Bandas and Leslie G. FordLeonard and Gabriela BebchickPeter and Ann BelenkyRichard W. Burris and Shirley DownsRonald M. Costell and Marsha E. Swiss

In memory of Dr. Giulio Cantoni and Mrs. Paula Saffiotti

Cathey Eisner Falvo and Jessica Aimee Falvo in honor of Carole Falvo

Milton J. Grossman,In memory of Dana Krueger Grossman

Wilda M. HeissJudith Henderson

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Benefactor (continued)Virginia Lee, In memory of Dr. and Mrs. Chai

Chang ChoiEgon and Irene MarxWinton E. Matthews, Jr.Dr. Judith C. and Dr. Eldor O. PedersonRichard Price and Yung ChangArthur F. PurcellHarriet RogersMace J. Rosenstein and Louise de la FuenteChristopher Sipes

Patron ($500 and above)Barry AbelNaomi M. AdaniyaDaniel J. Alpert and Ann H. FrankeDevora and Samuel ArbelSandra J. Blake, In memory of Ronald DiehlMarc H. and Vivian S. BrodskyDoris N. CelarierMargaret Choa William A. CohenHerbert L. and Joan M. CooperDiane E. DixsonElizabeth Eby and Bengal RichterWillem van Eeghen and Mercedes de

ArteagaLawrence FeinbergBecky Jo Fredriksson and Rosa D. WienerFred S. Fry, Jr. and Elaine SurianoGeraldine H. and Melvin C. GarbowHoward Gofreed, In memory of Ruth TretterThe Richard & Nancy Gould Family FundMargaret HinesMarc and Kay LevinsonGeorge and Kristen LundMary Lynne MartinRick Maurer and Kathy BartonDonogh McDonaldJan and Frank Moses Undine A. and Carl E. Nash Judith NeibriefJohn P. O'DonnellJan Pomerantz and Everett WilcoxRichard Price and Yung ChangAmy and Paul RispinBruce and Lori Laitman RosenblumMike and Mical Schneider In memory of Victor H. CohnDavid Seidman and Ruth GreensteinRebecca and Sidney Shaw, In memory of Dr. Leonard G. ShawBeverly J. and Phillip B. SkloverAnna SlomovicMaria Soto, In memory of Sara ArminanaDana and Linda Sundberg

Patron (continued)Lorna C. Totman, In memory of Daniel GallikJames C. and Carol R. TsangHarvey Van BurenAmy Weinstein and Phil Esocoff, In memory of Freda Hauptman BerlaSidney Wolfe and Suzanne GoldbergGail Yano and Edward A. Celarier

Sponsor ($250 and above)Anonymous (2)Edward A. CelarierCarol Ann DyerElizabeth Eby and Bengal RichterDamien Gaul Michal E. GrossJames S. and Zona F. Hostetler In memory of Randy HostetlerKim and Elizabeth KowalewskiHelen and David Mao George P. MuellerRobert H. ReynoldsJuliet Sablosky, In memory of Irving L. SabloskyAlan and Ann VollmanShari WerbPatricia A. Winston

Steven Osborne, piano, March 2021 - Library of Congress

Documents

Transcript of Steven Osborne, piano, March 2021 - Library of Congress