Symphonic Dances

Written during 1940, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances was premiered by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra the following January 3. Its formal freedom likely decided the composer against calling it his Fourth Symphony, but the many audible motivic interconnections among the three movements make such a title more than justified. Not least with the initial “Non allegro”, its impulsive first theme transformed into a bittersweet melody for tenor saxophone taken up by strings and piano. A curtailed reprise of the opening section leads into a coda where an allusion to the opening theme from the First Symphony―at that time unheard since its disastrous premiere 43 years earlier―sees a calmly resigned close. The central “Andante con moto” is in the tempo of a waltz, with muted brass denoting an ominous and often malevolent atmosphere not quelled by the suave melody on oboe and then strings, which builds to a spectral climax before dispersing in fragments toward the close. A terse introduction leads to the final “Lento assai”, its incisiveness making way for the central section, whose emotional intensity is achieved without a definite melody appearing. The energetic music duly returns for a culmination where Rachmaninoff’s final work ends, if not in triumph, at least with defiance.