IDAGIO | Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead - The Rock - Symphonic Dances 7318599917511

Featuring

Andrew Litton
Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester
Sergei Rachmaninoff

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Compositional Technique

The first of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances features a solo alto saxophone, creating an eerie, melancholy sound unique in his music.

Composer Biography

The Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninov's last work, were composed after a retrospective of his triple career as a composer, pianist, and conductor.

Performer Biography

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world's oldest orchestras, was founded in 1765 and had Edvard Grieg as its artistic director from 1880-82.

Compositional Technique

Rachmaninov frequently used a four-note figure from the Dies iræ plainchant as a musical symbol for death in his compositions.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Rachmaninov often composed based on literary or visual ideas, but preferred his music to speak for itself without detailed explanations.

Compositional Technique

In his Symphonic Dances, Rachmaninov quotes the motto-theme from his ill-fated First Symphony, which had been withdrawn after a disastrous premiere in 1897.

Composition History

Rachmaninov's orchestral fantasy The Rock was inspired by an epigraph from Mikhail Lermontov's poem Utyos, which also prefaced Anton Chekhov's short story Na Puti.