October 6, 2009: Beginning the Russian Music Festival with Rachmaninoff

October is Russian Music Festival month in the Noontime Concerts™ series at Old St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, presumably in honor of the Revolution reenacted in Sergei Eisenstein's film October and the book by John Reed on which it was based, Ten Days the Shook the World.  In the full scope of the twentieth century, the history of Russia may have turned out as the sort of "comedy of distress" that Alexander Pushkin had in mind in his play that Modest Mussorgsky adopted for his Boris Godunov opera;  so it is not surprising that this particular October festival should begin on a note of irony with a recital of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, who fled to Beverly Hills after the October Revolution and spent the remainder of his life there longing for the return of the Tsar.  However, the two works on this program, performed by the Fromme Duo (cellist Randolph Fromme accompanied by his wife Shu Li), both predated Rachmaninoff's emigration and may thus be heard as the valedictory evocations of a Russia that, in all likelihood, will never be again.  The major work on the program was the Opus 19 cello sonata;  and it was followed, in the spirit of the "programmed encore" by the Opus 34, Number 14 "Vocalise," with the cello doing the vocalizing.

The Wikipedia entry for the sonata cites a remark by John Culshaw (best known as a record producer for London) to the effect that Rachmaninoff disliked calling it a cello sonata because he thought the two instruments were equal.  That shows considerable generosity to the cello.  The piano is clearly the preferred instrument;  so, strictly speaking, this is a piano sonata with cello obbligato.  Under these circumstances Li was certainly up to the demands Rachmaninoff placed on the pianist while, at the same time, providing the necessary balance to allow Fromme's voice to be properly heard.  Nevertheless, the broad architectural scale of the four movements, particularly the first, is more than a bit of a sprawl.  It is unlikely that either Rachmaninoff's studies or his listening experiences allowed him to examine or appreciate the strategies engaged by either Richard Wagner or Rachmaninoff's own near-contemporary, Gustav Mahler, when it came to matters of structural integrity over extended durations;  and, in this particular sonata the result can easily strain the listener's attention.

The "Vocalise," on the other hand, is a gem of brevity, regardless of the instrument that happens to be doing the vocalizing.  (It was originally the last of a set four songs.)  In this case the piano serves primarily as accompaniment against an extended melodic line that weaves its way through new gestures of content with the same inventiveness that we encounter in similar melodic lines by Bach.  (Rachmaninoff would later paraphrase movements from Bach's E major unaccompanied violin partita, BWV 1006.  He may not have known his Wagner, but in all likelihood he knew his Bach very well!)  In this performance Fromme was much more a soloist in his own right, leaving me to hope that, on the next occasion that the Fromme Duo offers a recital, he will spend more of the time in the spotlight.