Sergei Rachmaninoff, age 10 or 12, St. Petersburg/Wikimedia Commons
In the Cathedral's crossing, the musicians, soloists, and chorus hypnotized the audience throughout the afternoon with Rachmaninoff's unsettling response to a painting and his intrepretation of Poe's "bells! bells! bells!" ringing everywhere.
The Isle of the Dead, 1880 - 1886, Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901)
Also on the program was Tennyson's text of his poem, In Memoriam: A.H.H., sung by soprano Andriana Chuchman, who later joined the Symphony, other soloists, and Chorus in Poe's The Bells.
Soprano Andriana Chuchman at the Washington National Cathedral, Mar. 19, 2023
After all, it is the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff's birth (April 1 or [O.S.] Mar. 20, 1873) and the DMV has gone plumb Rachy with three performances in a week and I am going to them all.
Lucky me!*
To combine the literary immortals with music is an astonishing feat and one which most assuredly exceeded expectations at the Cathedral from the first note to the last.
The audience was as captivated as I who had anticipated the sounds would echo in the Cathedral's great hall, diminishing the aural effects but that was not to be.
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's percussionists at the Washington National Cathedral, Mar. 19, 2023Guest artists, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Cathedral Choral Society at the conclusion of the performance, To the Wild Sky, Mar. 19, 2023The Washington National Cathedral, Mar. 19, 2023/By Patricia Leslie
First on the program was The Isle of the Dead, Rachmaninoff's response to a popular painting by Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901).
The music filled one with a sense of dread. In the boat as we neared the island, foreboding and heavy anxiety filled my emotions as waves and strings deepened, cymbals crashed and threw me around the vessel as it neared shore. The landscape echoed with the coming climax.
Upon landing, a single violin greeted us with a rainbow and not such an unpleasant ending.
Death be not proud.
The next selection, Ring Out, Wild Bells, to the Wild Sky was composed by Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964 and a Pulitzer Prize finalist) in 2000 on commission to welcome the new millennium.
For her base, the composer chose Tennyson's poem with its message of the "universal" drive for peace. It begins with multiple voices singing like bells in tandem with Ms. Chuchman, chorus, and orchestra.
Dare I write the best was saved for last?
"The bells! The bells! The bells!" so reads Poe's title he wrote in 1848-1849 and spoken confidently a cappella before the musical presentation by an unidentified man on video.
"Hear the sledges with bells" is Poe's first line, a sledge, coincidentally or not, was the vehicle used by Rachmaninoff and his family to escape Russia forever in 1917 as the nation's revolution took hold.
Program notes said an adaptation of Poe's Bells by the Russian Konstanin Balmont (1867-1942) led a student at the Moscow Conservatory in 1912 to recommend to Rachmaninoff that he put the poem to music.
After the composer read the verses, he "decided at once to use them for a choral symphony," an incredible performance at the Cathedral for the audience to hear that which became "the one I like best of all my works."
The movements included solos by John Ramseyer, tenor, Ms. Chuchman, and Aleksey Bogdanov, baritone, all exceeding quality demanded by Washington's attending classical perfectionists.
With a 20 minute intermission, the concert lasted almost two hours, an unforgettable production which will be hard to outperform by this week's remaining Rachmaninoff concerts.
More about Rachmaninoff:
Is it Rachmaninoff or Rachmaninov? Music for Everyone says the Rachmaninoffs changed their name from Rachmaninov when they fled Russia, likely because the family was pre-revolution Russian bourgeoisie.
Boosey & Hawkes, "the" classical music publisher, says about Rachmaninoff: "The years up to the Russian Revolution were spent in an exhausting whirl of playing and conducting, with the family’s country estate at Ivanovka, in the countryside south-east of Moscow, offering a haven of peace where he could concentrate on composition. The works that emerged during this period include the Third Piano Concerto, the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead, the choral symphony The Bells, and two a cappella choral works, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and the Vespers."
Rachmaninoff was born into a musical family and began piano lessons at age 4. After fleeing Russia with his family and settling in the U.S. about four decades later, he made a living by giving many performances but, like many artists, finding little time to compose.
On Feb. 17, 1943, already "gravely ill" and almost 70 years old, Rachmaninoff played his last recital at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where a statue to the composer was dedicated in 2003, the 130th anniversary of his birth, at the site of the 1982 World's Fair.
He became an American citizen shortly before he died of melanoma that year.
Conducting Sunday was Steven Fox, assisted by Joy Schreier, pianist.
*More Rachmaninoff:
The National Symphony Orchestra, 7 p.m., Mar. 23, 2023 at the Kennedy Center.
BSO, 8 p.m., Mar. 25, 2023, Music Center at Strathmore, Angel Blue and Rachmaninoff II; tickets starting at $35.
BSO, 8 p.m., Apr. 13, 2023, Music Center at Strathmore, Marin Conducts Rach 3; tickets starting at $35.
Of note, Poe and Tennyson were born in the same year, 1809, as was President Abraham Lincoln.
Why are most of the great composers Russian? I am guessing many Ph.D. students have written their dissertations on this topic, at least one I would like to read! Does their nation's turbulent past play a role?
patricialesli@gmail.com
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