Program Notes }
and thus off-limits to many prominent
international singers.
One that is not hampered by language is the exquisitely beautiful
Vocalise that closes his set of 14 songs,
opus 34, for it is a wordless composition for soprano, sung mostly on the
vowel sound “Ah.” It was written in
1915 for the coloratura soprano Antonina Nezhdanova, a star of the Moscow
Grand Opera, and when she objected to
the lack of a poetic text, the composer
gallantly replied: “What need is there of
words, when you will be able to convey
everything better and more expressively
than anyone could with words by your
voice and interpretation?”
Written in a minor key, like
so many of Rachmaninoff’s
best pieces, Vocalise has a
melancholy undertone.
After Vocalise was premiered in Moscow
by Nezhdanova and Rachmaninoff in
January 1916, Nikolai von Struve suggested to the composer that he orchestrate the work. Rachmaninoff promptly
responded with arrangements for soprano
and orchestra and for orchestra alone,
and it is these versions that are most often
heard today.
Written in a minor key, like so many
of Rachmaninoff’s best pieces, Vocalise
has a melancholy undertone that reflects
the composer’s dark mood at this time,
as Russia struggled through World War I
and hovered on the brink of revolution. Its
opening melodic phrase is an artfully disguised version of the ancient “Dies Irae”
(“Day of Ju