Préludes, Op. 23 Cinq morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3

Abstract

These are the first works beyond the Prélude Opus 3 #2 that have a regular place in the standard piano repertoire. Somewhat sparer in texture and less ostentatiously virtuosic than the Moments Musicaux, Opus 16, these Préludes, although nominally in the Chopin tradition, have more in common with Chopin's Études. The majority of them exhibit a simple three-part structure (ABA). #1, f-sharp minor. A slow and haunting melody is sustained above a chromatic left-hand accompaniment. This Prélude shows more of Chopin's influence than most of Rachmaninov's mature pieces. #2, B-flat major. This brilliant, but somewhat bombastic work is an Etude utilizing a wide variety of technical devices. A sonorous right-hand chordal melody is accompanied by sweeping left-hand arpeggios. The lyrical central section reverses the hands' roles by placing the melody in the left hand while the right hand plays rapid broken-chord figurations. An exciting transition leads to the reprise and final fortissimo peroration. #3, d minor. Although marked as a "Tempo di minuetto," this Prélude is more of a march in character. Fairly complex contrapuntally, the piece is enlivened by Rachmaninov's typical rhythmic drive. It makes both subtle and effective use of a variety of articulations. #4, D major. Slow and lyrical, this famous Prélude is something of a Nocturne in character. It rises to a large central climax before the elaborated reprise, and demonstrates Rachmaninov's melodic gift at its best. #5, g minor. This single Prélude dates from two years earlier, 1901, and is probably the most famous of the set. It is a brilliant and exhilarating march, with a beautiful and melancholy lyrical middle section. Technically, the repeated chords can be taxing, especially while maintaining the necessary rhythmic thrust. #6, E-flat major. This is another Nocturne-like work, with the melody in octaves over an expressive sixteenth-note accompaniment. Lyrical and sentimental, this Prélude is a trifle cloying if not left understated by the pianist. #7, c minor. This Prélude is a brilliant and exciting Etude featuring rapid figuration propelling a slow moving melody divided between the hands. The sudden ending in C major is as surprising as it is effective. #8, A-flat major. Reminiscent of Chopin's Prélude Opus 28 #19, this Prélude is a study in broken-chord figurations. In spite of the extreme technical difficulty, the overall mood is one of relaxed lyricism. #9, e-flat minor. Another Etude: this time a study in double-note technique. Chromatic, propulsive, and extraordinarily difficult, it is probably the least valuable, musically, of the set. #10, G-flat major. The final Prélude is the shortest and simplest. It is a stately Elegy; beautifully melodic and subtle, lacking the usual climactic passage that at this point has become almost a mannerism of Rachmaninov's style.

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No.1 in F#-

The 1892 Prelude No. 2 in C sharp minor (from Morceaux de Fantasie, Op. 3) was the first prelude Rachmaninov composed. Though tagged as No. 1 in Op. 23, this Prelude in F sharp minor was not the first in this set composed, that distinction falls to the popular G minor (No. 5), which dates to 1901. It was two years later that Rachmaninov then produced this F sharp minor effort, as well as the B flat major (No. 2). The other seven came later that same year. Although the Prelude in G minor has been the most popular work in the set, No. 1 here has also attracted its share of attention. It is one of those brooding, passionate works that Rachmaninov was so famous for. The piece opens with a typically forlorn accompaniment and a soft, repetitive figure in the middle register over which a lovely, gloomy theme is played an octave or so higher. The accompaniment suggests constant agitation, while the theme seems to console, or does it cry? The middle section turns tense and anxious, but a mild climactic episode does not resolve—much less banish—the underlying turmoil and melancholy. This work typically has a duration of three-and-a-half minutes.

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No.2 in Bb

This B flat major prelude, Op. 23/2, is the third of the 24 preludes Rachmaninov composed. The first, the well-known C sharp minor, is an orphan of sorts, serving as No. 2 in the Morceaux de Fantasie, a set of five pieces of varying types. This Prelude in B flat major is one of the brighter of the ten that comprise its set. The collection is not necessarily beset with constant melancholy but, as in much of Rachmaninov's music, it tends toward the gloomy or unsettling, or at least divulges agitation or yearning. This prelude is hardly free of anxiety in its rapid tempos and brilliant piano writing, but is nevertheless sunlit and effervescent in its excitement. In the outer sections, the left hand busily provides a nearly constant running accompaniment, while the right plays a buoyant but nervous theme, the whole sounding like glittering cascades of notes from up and down the keyboard. Roles are reversed in the middle section, the left hand playing a lovely, passionate melody to gentle but busy accompaniment by the right. The music builds up to herald the return of the main theme and the piece closes in triumphant style. This prelude has a duration of about three-and-a-half minutes.

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No.4 in D

Of the ten preludes in the Op. 23 set, this is one of the most serene and lovely. Like the G flat major (No. 11 overall, but the tenth in Op. 23), it reflects the composer's happy personal circumstances at the time: Rachmaninov had married his cousin Natalia Satina in May 1902 and they were expecting their first child the following May. He had also scored a great success the previous year with the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2, lifting him from a major depression and loss of confidence in his abilities that had plagued him since 1897. This prelude opens with a soothing, running accompaniment over which a lovely theme is played whose ascending trajectory immediately imparts a celestial warmth. Soon, the music builds up, but as it swells, it reveals little tension, promising only radiance and ecstasy. The listener experiences a sense of both here, but Rachmaninov works the music up to a second, even more climactic episode, after which the music revels for a time in ecstatic outpourings, then slowly fades in utter contentment. This prelude typically has a duration of nearly five minutes.

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No.5 in G-

This richly resonant piano work is comprised of two contrasting moods. The first of these is a minor-key march of a Spanish or Italian marching band variety. The melody, built mostly on broken chords, is clearly heard in the bass register surrounded by quick "ta-ta-dah" brass rhythmic figures played on full, repeated chords. The end of the first melodic phrase scatters into wonderfully syncopated and angular figures.

Up to this point, the general dynamic has been that of a greatly held-back intensity (at "piano" level). Suddenly, powerful major harmonies ascend in the "ta-ta-dah" rhythm, propelled on the fourth beat by quick, scale-wise octaves leading into the next chord. This thrilling passage builds from forte to fortissimo and concludes with a concerto-like crescendo of repeated chords over a deep bass pedal point, followed by an electrifying cascade of octaves leading back into the first subject now played with fortissimo energy.

The theme gradually subsides by a series of chromatic chords and single notes over a single pedal point to a bare whisper. This segues directly into the second mood which is that of a Romantic melody in octaves played over sweeping waves of arpeggios. This lyrical strain recalls a greatly emotional, perhaps nostalgic, experience although the context remains programmatically non-specific providing no clues as to the cause of this feeling. The tempo here is somewhat elastic and rubato. The only element from the march section worked into this mood is the simple figure of two quick sixteenths used to bridge parts of that theme.

The initial mood begins to re-establish itself (at a pianississimo level) and ascends through chromatics back to the initial key, and then continues even further to reach the subdominant key (C minor). Even then the chromatic alterations do not stop until the tension has built up to the point of return of the crashing, ascending major chords of the initial bridge. This proceeds in the original key to the quickly descending octave cascade and the final recapitulation of the march theme at a fortissimo dynamic.

Rachmaninov continues his wonderfully coloristic chromatic alterations of the original chords into the diminishing coda which ends the piece with teasing variations on the "ta-ta-dah" rhythm concluding in a final flurry of arpeggios which ascends to the high treble.

Composed two years earlier than the other preludes in Opus 23, the G Minor Prelude has become a popular work and a standard on piano recitals.

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No.6 in Eb

If Rachmaninov tended to be gloomy and obsessed with dark symbols in his music—he quoted the Dies Irae theme in countless major works—he also could express the most ecstatic happiness or the most serene sense of peace. The Op. 23 set of ten preludes contains a few gloomy works to be sure, but also features some of his most radiant and lovely pieces, largely devoid of conflict and tension but still able to touchingly convey their beauty. This prelude, No. 6 in a set of seven, as well as Nos. 4 (D major) and 10 (G flat major) share these characteristics and are among the composer's most joyous creations. This Prelude in E flat major opens with a running figure in the left hand, over which the right plays a lovely theme whose hints at passion and desire never suggest a sense of yearning or discontent. The melody is gentle in its short, arched lines and its mood is expectant, the music budding and building as it seems to be working toward some ecstasy. There is one climactic moment nearly midway through its four-minute length, after which the music turns gentle again, content to revel in the quiet intimacies of its beauties.

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No.7 in C-

It is known that Rachmaninov favored composing in minor keys, but in his preludes, he alternated between major and minor in order to produce 24 for each key. They came in three different collections: the Morceaux (5) de Fantasie, Op. 3, which contains the popular C sharp minor prelude; Preludes (10), Op. 23; and Preludes (13), Op. 32. This C minor prelude is the seventh in the Op. 23 set and is a restless creation full of tension and mystery and conflicted with brilliance and darkness. Its unsettling elements stand in contrast to other pieces in the set, like the serene and beautiful fourth and tenth. The C minor prelude opens with a nervous rippling theme in the upper register, which conveys a sense of agitation in its searching or wandering manner. Just when the anxious music seems to be arriving at a resolution as it turns softer and more intimate in the assuaging left-hand harmonies, its swirls turn into cascades of notes and the mood becomes fiery again. Still, the music vacillates between the anxious and gentle until the final emphatic chords close the piece with a sense of resolution, if an ambivalent one. This work typically lasts two-and-a half minutes.

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No.10 in Gb

This piece was the last in the set of Preludes (10), comprising Rachmaninov's Op. 23. It is numbered his 11th prelude because the 1892 First, the famous C sharp minor, was placed in the Op. 3 group of five pieces, Morceaux de Fantasie. All of the preludes in the Op. 23 set were composed in 1903, except for No. 5 (in G minor), which dates to 1903. The G major prelude here was written at a time when Rachmaninov and his wife were awaiting the birth of their first child, which would take place in May 1903. The work is a gentle, lovely, and romantic outpouring, but for once not involving Rachmaninov's trademark passion, yearning, or other heart-on-sleeve manner. The main theme here first emerges in a relatively limited range on the middle of the keyboard, but still sings its loving, gentle song. It gradually expands and builds toward what seems will be an ecstatic outpouring, but the climax reached is restrained in its gentle warmth. The music thereafter is brighter in its upper-register sonorities and sense of serenity, and the ending features a slow fade, as if arriving at the most peaceful sleep. This work typically lasts four minutes in performance.