Rachmaninov: Etudes-Tableaux Op. 39, Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, op. 36

Description

During the years in which Sergei Rachmaninoff conceived the nine Études-Tableaux, Op. 39, Russia was undergoing a pivotal historical transformation: the February Revolution of 1917 and, more radically, the October Revolution had overthrown the Tsarist regime and marked the beginning of a new era, initially perceived as full of promise. Rachmaninoff, initially fascinated by this wind of freedom, soon realized he would have to emigrate:
«Already in March 1917, I had made the decision to leave Russia, but I was unable to carry out my plan because Europe was still at war and no one could cross the borders. I withdrew to the countryside and spent the summer in Ivanovka. It would be my last summer in Russia. The impressions I received from contact with the peasants were very unpleasant. I would have preferred to leave Russia with better memories. At the time of the second phase of the Revolution – the Bolshevik uprising – I was still living in my old apartment in Moscow. I began to write my first Piano Concerto and started the composition of what would become the Fourth… At that moment, a totally unexpected event, which I can only attribute to divine grace and not to chance, came to my aid». He was referring to a concert tour in Scandinavia, which served as a pretext to leave the country. Among the last musical fragments he composed in November 1917 was one later nicknamed Orient Express, perhaps reflecting his desperate desire to escape to another life. His family joined him in Petrograd on December 23; the famous bass Fyodor Chaliapin sent his friend a farewell note along with a box of caviar and some homemade bread for the journey – a gesture that deeply moved Rachmaninoff. Following the Scandinavian tour, the great journey to New York began from Oslo, on November 1, 1918, aboard a small steamer. Thus began his adventure in the New World, but Rachmaninoff remained haunted for the rest of his life by a profound sense of nostalgia – a Russian, as Stravinsky once said, «never forgets the smell of Russian soil».
This feeling of nostalgia seems deeply ingrained in the human spirit and strongly emerges even in Rachmaninoff’s works with a highly virtuosic character, often permeated by a poignant passion that builds to a climactic point bordering on tragic despair. The idea of an emotional-sonic “climax” was essential to Rachmaninoff, who in a letter to Chaliapin stated that the performer should reach this peak «after absolutely meticulous calculation». This idea of passion rendered musically with near-scientific precision also applies to Rachmaninoff the conductor, who was described by contemporaries as devoid of theatrical flamboyance, entirely focused on uncovering new precious details in every work. The conductor’s art also emerges in his piano writing, often quasi-orchestral in nature; it is no surprise, then, that some of the Études-Tableaux were orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi. On that occasion, Rachmaninoff provided the Italian composer with some “secret explanations” to help him find the “necessary colors” for Études 2, 6, and 7 of Op. 39, as well as the fourth of Op. 33:

・The first Étude in A minor (Op. 39, No. 2) depicts the sea and seagulls (an idea suggested by Madame Rachmaninoff).
・The second Étude in A minor (Op. 39, No. 6) was inspired by the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.
・The third Étude in E-flat major (Op. 33, No. 4) represents a fairground scene.
・The fourth Étude in D major (Op. 39, No. 9) resembles the previous one and is close in style to an Eastern market.
・The fifth Étude in C minor (Op. 39, No. 7) is a funeral march. The initial theme is a march. The other theme represents a choir’s chant. At the beginning, a ceaseless, hopeless drizzle is suggested (in C minor, then, further on, in E-flat minor). Later, culminating in C minor, church bells. The ending reprises the first theme: a march.

This description helps us understand that although Rachmaninoff didn’t give these “tableaux” specific titles or explicit programs, they were far from purely abstract works and were deeply rooted in visual and narrative imagery.
The sequence opens with the Allegro agitato of Op. 39, No. 1 in C minor, characterized by broken arpeggios in the right hand, opposed by octave figures with occasional syncopation in the left. The central section is more ecstatic, sometimes playful, while the recapitulation leads to a climax with a frenzied chromatic progression, ending with two mighty final chords.
The second Étude, Lento assai, contrasts this with a deeply internalized sorrow. Built on triplet motion, with an arpeggiated left hand spanning wide intervals and polyrhythmic interplay, a motif drawn from the Dies Irae engages in dialogue with a refined melodic line in the right hand.
The third Étude, in F-sharp minor, Allegro molto, emphasizes the superimposition of binary and ternary rhythms (with a metrical shift from 9/16 to 12/16), and is technically among the most complex, due to its dense writing full of octaves and double notes. The fourth, Allegro assai in B minor, with a spirited flair, unfolds in the atmosphere of a fantastic ballad. The fifth, Appassionato in E-flat minor, is defined by a typically Slavic, simple yet fiery motif that rises above repeated chords (sometimes compared to Chopin’s 24th Prelude). The central section presents increasingly dense chromaticism. After traversing various keys, the initial theme reappears an octave lower, with richer harmonization. The sixth Étude, Allegro in A minor, is more transparent and lively, yet marked by sudden and menacing low-register outbursts (evoking the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood). Dark, fantastical, and mystical, the seventh Étude, Lento in C minor, evokes continuous, disheartening rain through steady sixteenth notes. The eighth (Allegro moderato in D minor) alternates modal and chromatic harmony. The final Étude (No. 9 in D major) concludes the cycle with a festive, Eastern-tinged march on a rapid dactylic rhythm.
The entire set is unified by recurring elements, most notably the consistent inclusion of the Dies Irae theme – not always explicit – in the first five Études, functioning as a kind of idée fixe. Despite a tonal language, Rachmaninoff enriches his harmonies with a sense of modernity and unpredictability through modality, the whole-tone scale, and chromaticism.

The Second Piano Sonata, Op. 36 in B-flat minor, was conceived before Rachmaninoff left Russia – specifically in 1913, in Rome, where the composer spent several months with his family: «In Rome, I managed to rent the same apartment on the Piazza di Spagna that Modest Tchaikovsky had used for a long time and that had served as a temporary refuge for his brother from his numerous friends. My wife and I stayed in a boarding house, and every morning I would go to the apartment to compose, staying there until evening. Nothing helps me like solitude. I can only compose when I am alone and nothing from the outside disrupts the flow of ideas. I would spend the whole day at the piano or at my desk, not putting down my pen until the setting sun had gilded the pines on the Pincian Hill. There I worked on my Second Piano Sonata and the choral symphony The Bells», based on a text by Poe translated by Balmont. However, the Roman stay had to be interrupted due to his daughters contracting typhoid; Rachmaninoff completed the Sonata at his country estate in Ivanovka and premiered it in Moscow on December 3, 1913. Much later, in the 1930s, he felt the need to revise some works he considered overly redundant, including this Sonata, which was thoroughly reworked in 1931: «There are too many voices moving simultaneously and it’s too long. Chopin’s [Second] Sonata lasts nineteen minutes and says all there is to say». He thus eliminated 120 bars and made the writing more concise. In 1943, pianist Vladimir Horowitz, a renowned interpreter of this work, prepared a third version with further revisions.
Though composed around the same time as Scriabin’s highly innovative Tenth Sonata, Rachmaninoff’s Second might appear conservative. In reality, while rooted in a 19th-century, Lisztian tradition, it also includes deeply personal elements.
The first movement, Allegro agitato, is characterized by the traditional contrast between a highly dramatic first theme, full of urgent momentum and pathos, and a second, lyrical and serene theme. The originality lies above all in the way Rachmaninoff makes these two principles interact, in an extreme and typically Slavic dialectic between mania and melancholy, impetuous action and meditative reflection.
A meditative atmosphere prevails in the second movement, Non allegro, opened by a descending motif with delicate expression, which returns periodically. In the various episodes that follow, echoes of the first movement appear, with both themes transformed. Gradually, the mood becomes more passionate and impetuous, until the initial theme returns like a warm and tender embrace.
Resonances with themes from the first movement are also found in the third (Allegro molto), confirming the Sonata’s cyclical form and organic unity. The expressive tone returns to the agitation of the opening, now intensified with martial and almost furious motifs, though the central section makes room for moments of trembling tenderness and delicate sweetness. The struggle between the two principles leads to a triumphantly joyful conclusion in B-flat major.
Luca Ciammarughi © 2025