Symphonic Dances (Rachmaninoff)

The Symphonic Dances Op. 45 are Sergei Rachmaninov's last work, composed in 1940 in Huntington on Long Iceland. Rachmaninoff wrote the original work for orchestra, but made ​​almost at the same time also a version for two pianos, which he privately, never publicly aufführte with Vladimir Horowitz. The composition consists of three movements:

This required orchestra is large, the usual cast with triple wood is an alto sax ( one of the few cases of a saxophone in classical music), greatly expanded percussion ( 3 timpani, tambourine, triangle, small and great drum, cymbals, tam-tam, glockenspiel, 3 bells), piano and a harp. In the orchestral literature The work is challenging to play. It is dedicated to the Philadelphia Orchestra and its then chief conductor Eugene Ormandy who premiered the work also on 3 January 1941. Only during a performance under Dimitri Mitropoulos and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in November 1942 Rachmaninov discovered that in the score of the first movement Allegro instead of a non Allegro was printed; the Non was streaked. To date, Allegro Non find but often more than set specification. The Duration of the sentence does not vary significantly between individual performances last therefore. A separate shots that would have shown Rachmaninov's view was planned, but was never carried out.

The changes in his life are processed work referred to in this originally Fantastic Dances, from a program that designates the sentences noon, sunset and midnight, has been reported. The first set contains at the end a quote from Rachmaninov's unsuccessful first symphony, which plunged him into a deep crisis. The second sentence should stand for the years of the century until the Russian Revolution. The third dance ends with the synthesis of the Dies Irae (symbolic of death ) with the Alleluia of the Orthodox liturgy ( of the resurrection ) and as the coda of the work has been subtitled by Rachmaninov with Alleluia. The pious and hopeful song of praise triumphed in the last bars of the great master of the melody of the Last Judgment, which runs through all his work - this is interpreted as a premonition of imminent death and simultaneous turning to faith.

Rachmaninov, the life critically examined many of his works, and even after the publication of yet made ​​changes, deletions and revisions, the Symphonic Dances prized so much that he called it his best work, before he had reserved this predicate for the bells.

Sections of the first set are used in the theme music of the television show Quarks & Co.