Overture Magazine - 2014-2015 November-December 2014 | Page 15

than a week. For suitable thematic material, he turned to collections of Serbian folk
melodies and chose three for his vigorously tuneful work. The most prominent
is the somber descending melody that
forms its opening section, while a livelier
Serbian tune takes over in the middle section. As illustration of Russia’s solidarity
with Serbia, in the closing coda we hear
the noble strains of the Russian Tsarist
national anthem — familiar to listeners
for its prominent use in the 1812 Overture
— proudly proclaimed by the brass.
Marche slave is a big, colorful, and bombastic work designed to appeal to its listeners’ patriotic feelings. That it did most
successfully at its premiere in Moscow
on November 17, 1876. One eyewitness
wrote: “The rumpus and roar that broke
out in the hall after this [piece] beggars
description. The whole audience rose to
its feet, many jumped up onto their
seats: cries of bravo and hurrah were
mingled together. The march had to be
repeated, after which the same storm
broke out afresh. … It was one of the
most stirring moments of 1876. Many
in the hall were weeping.”
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two piccolos, two
oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns,
four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,
percussion and strings.

Piano Concerto No. 1
in F-sharp minor

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born in Semyonovo, Russia, April 1, 1873;
died in Beverly Hills, California,
March 28, 1943

Listening to Rachmaninoff’s First Piano
Concerto, we hear the inspiration of
adolescence mingled with the mature craft
of a middle-aged man. That’s because
the version of this concerto performed
today, although first written in 1890–91
when Rachmaninoff was only a teenager,
was extensively revised by the composer
in 1917 when he was 44 and had his
immensely successful Second and Third
Piano Concertos under his belt. Interestingly, Rachmaninoff at 18 was already the

COSTUMES OF DOWNTON ABBEY

March 1, 2014–January 4, 2015 • Winterthur Museum

View exquisite costumes and accessories worn upstairs and downstairs on
the period drama television series that has taken America by storm! For more
information, please call 800.448.3883 or visit winterthur.org/downtonabbey.
Included with admission. Members free.
The exhibition is presented by
With support from the Glenmede Trust Company
Downton Abbey ® is seen on

on

and is a Carnival Films/Masterpiece Co-Production.

Photographs © Nick Briggs, Carnival Film & Television Limited, 2010–12. All Rights Reserved.

Winterthur is nestled in Delaware’s beautiful Brandywine Valley on Route 52,
midway between New York City and Washington, D.C. Take I-95 to Exit 7 in Delaware.

November–DEcember 2014 |

O v ertur e

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