Ed's talk: Rachmaninoff, Medtner and posterity

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Rachmaninoff, Medtner and posterity

An email concerning my blog on art music has made me re-exam what may be a crucial event in 20th Century music history. Namely the incredibly stupid article on Rachmaninoff by Eric Blom in the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary (1954) and it's repudiation in a later edition:

"His music is well constructed and effective, but monotonous in texture, which consists in essence mainly of artificial and gushing tunes accompanied by a variety of figures derived from arpeggios.

''The enormous popular success some few of Rachmaninov's works had in his lifetime is not likely to last, and musicians never regarded it with much favor. The Third Pianoforte Concerto was on the whole liked by the public only because of its close resemblance to the Second, while the Fourth, which attempted something like a new departure, was a failure from the start. The only later work that has attracted large concert audiences was the Rhapsody (variations) on a Theme by Paganini for pianoforte and orchestra.''

I have no quote from the "grudging" or "abject" apology in the 1980 Grove's though I've seen it some time ago. But they had to be embarrassed by the earlier article.

When I was at Yale School of Music, I had as my piano teacher Ellsworth Grumman who was a (piano?) pupil of the composer-pianist Nicholas Medtner (1880-1951), a sort of rival of Rachmaninoff's. Mr. Grumman was fond of saying words to the effect that Medtner was thought to be a "washed-out Rachmaninoff" but that the opposite was true. And he tried to convince his students to play Medtner but the effort was lost on most of us.

A few years later when I studied with Nadia Reisenberg, I got a group of Rachmaninoff piano pieces together but never had any interest in Medtner who I thought was indeed a "washed-out Rachmaninoff".

Rachmaninoff remains an interesting case! His music remains much used in films, Hollywood and otherwise, but is especially associated with the British film "Brief Encounter" from 1945 in which the Second Piano Concerto is used. The film is in black and white but the Concerto is defininitely "Technicolor".

Nowadays, though the Second Concerto is still played often, the Third is preferred, perhaps stemming to it's association with Van Cliburn's winning of the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958. (The First and Fourth were never played much so Blom was not completely wrong.)

It must be said that Rachmaninoff's own recorded performances of the Concertos and of the equally famous "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" were never over-the-top. In the long run, these works as well as many others ("The Bells", the Second and Third Symphonies, "The Isle of the Dead", Symphonic Dances and much of the piano solo music) have shown their solidity and durability.

But I would maintain that the prevalent opinion in the mid-twentieth century that only "modernism" was really viable as new music, and I suspect Eric Blom was of this opinion, has proven to be wrong . (When he writes that "musicians never regarded it with much favor." one wonders which musicians he was referring to, or was this pure snobbery?) More on this later.

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5 Comments:

At July 7, 2008 at 1:45 PM , Blogger Joe said...

I haven't read either of the Grove's articles on Rachmaninoff, but the quotes attributed to Blom that were cited are a clear indication of the disconnect between music elites and the general public during much of the past century. I'm sure there were graduate students who were steered away from writing their dissertations on Rachmaninoff, whose work was dismissed as kitsch by many modernist academics, and I recall at least one Harvard grad student who similarly was persuaded not to pursue his research interest in Sibelius. The thinking was that "serious" journals wouldn't have the least desire to print articles about these too conspicuously "popular" composers, and that would hamper the careers of those aspiring to find their niches in the scholarly establishment.

Well, the modernist scholars be damned! Rachmaninoff and Sibelius still manage to hold their own today, and even Medtner has been recorded by no less a pianist than Michael Ponti (I'm listening to his 1973 interpretation of Medtner's Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 60, even as I type this--certainly worth hearing, and worth playing for anyone who has the chops). I won't pretend that Sergei, Jan, and Nicolai take hold of my mind and imagination so firmly as Wolfgang, Ludwig, or Johannes, but I certainly would not be so ungracious as to denigrate their considerable talents. These were men of genius, and if their music should be warmly received by the public today, there's no cause to complain but to celebrate the fact that musical intelligence still resonates with ordinary music lovers.

If the themes of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony and Piano Concerto No. 2 are so infectiously beautiful that pop singer Eric Carmen borrowed them for "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" and "All by Myself" (1975 album), perhaps some of today's rising young vocal entertainers will take the clue from this long tradition of appropriation and rediscover the inspirational value of art music. After all, "classical" music is so called for a reason: it manages to survive fads and trends and to endure from generation to generation, speaking to all who have ears to genuinely listen.

 
At July 7, 2008 at 5:00 PM , Blogger Ed said...

I last heard Medtner when a pianist I knew played some at a home recital. I spoke to her husband after and told him my feelings about him and he agreed. But many people do find much in his music and I think he's become somewhat of a cult.

Michael Ponti, the Ruggiero Ricci of the piano, has recorded everything ever written! ;-)

First thing I ever heard by Sibelius was the 5th Symphony and it remains my favorite among his compositions. I can say the same about RVW's 5th.

I agree with you about Wolfie, Lud and Johannes though.

Of course, Eric Carmen has nothing to worry about copyright infringement since Russia didn't subscribe to the Geneva convention, at least during Rocky's lifetime and anyone in the West anyway, could play his music royalty-free, I think.

But I also think back to my childhood when "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" was popular. (I'm aware that this really dates me!)

I was around Grade 3 piano at the time but when my piano teacher, a high school girl, played Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu for me, I went and learned it, polyrhythms and all.

I regret that I was not brave enough to let on to my teacher that I could play it. (I understand she died young.)

 
At July 8, 2008 at 6:04 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know enough of Medtner to comment in a truly informed way about his oeuvre, but my impression of the Third Piano Concerto is that, while a worthwhile vehicle for virtuoso pianists of romantic temperament, and certainly worth Ponti's effort to revive it, this work doesn't take deep roots in this listener's memory nd doesn't stir the same kind of "sympathetic" emotions as do the second and third Rachmaninoff concertos. It seems to me memorability is a pretty important quality to ensure a composition's success, and somehow Rachmaninoff possesses that attribute in abundance while Medtner--a skilled craftsman--remains more abstract and less immediately engaging.

Yes, Ponti's recording legacy is startlingly broad!

--jdf

 
At July 8, 2008 at 2:59 PM , Blogger Joe said...

I had to post the previous comment anonymously because my password wasn't accepted when I tried to post from my other computer. This probably has nothing to do with the password per se and more to do with the cookie or something similarly technical.

:-)

jdf

 
At July 8, 2008 at 6:34 PM , Blogger Ed said...

Hi Joe,

I wondered about that but had to leave early today.

Thanks for all your comments.

Ed

 

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