Études-tableaux

Rachmaninoff makes huge technical demands on the pianist from the outset of his second collection of Études-tableaux (1916-17). These include the surging restlessness of the Étude No. 1 in C Minor; the poignant and, for those who can bring out its textural nuances, intense reflections of the A Minor No. 2; and the rhythmic vitality and cascading fistfuls of the F-sharp Minor No. 3 "Allegro". Though he did not set out to paint specific pictures with the tableaux, he did offer some clues as to what had inspired some of them when the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi arranged the set for orchestra. For Rachmaninoff, the reflective No. 2 suggests "The Sea and the Seagulls"; No. 6 tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf; and the anguished No. 7, written not long after the death of another great composer of études, Alexander Scriabin, depicts a funeral. These were dark days for Rachmaninoff, writing at the time of the First World War while still mourning the death of his father, and the composer threads the ominous Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) theme into the studies.