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Rachmaninoff

Piano Works

Ian Gindes piano

Release Date: November 3, 2023
Catalog #: NV6582
Format: Digital
20th Century
Romantic
Solo Instrumental
Piano

Pianist Ian Gindes presents a captivating elucidation of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s solo piano works on RACHMANINOFF, a new album of discerning artistry. With meticulous care and interpretive insight, Gindes navigates the rich tapestry of Rachmaninoff’s compositions, peeling back the layers on their emotional depth and their technical intricacies.

The Russian-American composer’s signature confluence of opulent chromatic harmonies and classically informed structures is imbued with zest under Gindes’ adept touch. Gindes finds an astute balance of lyricism and virtuosity, while his intuitive phrasing enhances the inherent narrative of each of the Preludes and Études-Tableaux. The album is rounded off by a fitting tribute, composed by Jerry Goldsmith and arranged by Jed Distler, honoring Rachmaninoff’s influence on Hollywood and jazz.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Lilacs Op. 21, No. 5 in A- Flat Major Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 2:54
02 Études-Tableaux Op. 33, No. 4 in D Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 3:45
03 Études-Tableaux Op. 33, No. 8 in G Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 4:49
04 Études-Tableaux Op. 39, No. 1 in C Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 3:43
05 Études-Tableaux Op. 39, No. 8 in D Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 4:03
06 Preludes Op. 3, No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 5:07
07 Preludes Op. 23, No. 2 in B-Flat Major Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 3:31
08 Preludes Op. 23, No. 4 in D Major Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 5:32
09 Preludes Op. 23, No. 5 in G Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 4:21
10 Preludes Op. 23, No. 8 in A-Flat Major Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 3:27
11 Preludes Op. 32, No. 10 in B Minor Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 6:43
12 Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow) Fritz Kreisler arr. Sergei Rachmaninoff Ian Gindes, piano 4:56
13 Vocalise Op. 34, No. 14 Sergei Rachmaninoff arr. Zoltan Kocsis Ian Gindes, piano 7:10
14 Alone in the World Jerry Goldsmith arr. Jed Distler Ian Gindes, piano 7:46

Acknowledgments
Thank you to everyone who helped make this recording possible, including Thomas Zoells, PianoForte Chicago, Rachel Frazier, sound engineer, Caleb Crockett and Joey Della Vecchia, piano technicians, Jed Distler, composer, Anne Marie Kuhny, producer, John Wagstaff (formerly of University of Illinois Libraries) for research and liner notes, and Ann Gindes, photographer and editor. Thank you also to PARMA Recordings as well as to Mary Mazurek and Cosmo Buono for their support.

Dedication
In memory of my Dad, my first piano teacher, who instilled in me a love of Rachmaninoff’s music.

Recorded at PianoForte Chicago in Chicago IL
Recording Session Producer Anne Marie Kuhny
Recording Session Engineer Rachel Frazier
Editing and Mixing Rachel Frazier
Piano Technicians Caleb Crockett, Joey Della Vecchia

Mastering Melanie Montgomery

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Aidan Curran

Artist Information

Ian Gindes

Pianist

Ian Gindes has performed live at many venues, including PianoForte Chicago, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Donald W. Nixon Centre, Yavapai College Performance Hall, and Carnegie Hall in New York. Gindes’ debut there earned praise from New York Concert Review. His previous recording, American Visions, was lauded by Gramophone Magazine (UK) for its “keyboard brilliance,” and his music, along with his last album, has been featured on many radio stations including SiriusXM Symphony Hall, WFMT (Chicago), WWFM (New Jersey-Pennsylvania), as well as on American Veterans Radio, Chicago’s WGN-TV, and WAIF Radio of Cincinnati OH.

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Notes

Rachmaninoff is known internationally as a piano virtuoso and as the composer of some world-famous melodies, several of which can be heard on this recording. Surviving images of him, including a 1929 portrait by Boris Chaliapin, show a tall, cultured, and rather delicate man, his famously large hands often prominently on display. Although born into somewhat affluent circumstances, for much of his life he had to struggle to earn a decent living for himself, his wife, and his two daughters, especially after emigrating from his native Russia to the United States in December 1917 because of the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of Communism in Russia. Consequently, for much of his life in the United States he supplemented the income he earned from composing by undertaking long and exhausting (but much more lucrative) concert tours.

The works on this recording were all composed while Rachmaninoff was still in Russia. It is entirely appropriate that it comprises selections of pieces rather than complete cycles, as this is exactly how he himself chose to perform his works in recital, creating bespoke concert programs as required.

— John Wagstaff

This is an arrangement of the fifth of Rachmaninoff’s set of 12 Romances for voice and piano Op. 21, which were composed in April 1902, the same month as his marriage to Natalia Satina. The solo piano version, however, probably dates from the very end of 1914. Rachmaninoff retains the song’s original key of A-Flat, and in his arrangement also manages to preserve the rather wistful mood of the poem by Ekaterina Beketova on which it is based, while simultaneously subjecting the original sung melody to a virtuosic treatment.

— John Wagstaff

Some five years separate Rachmaninoff’s two sets of Études-Tableaux, a title that is difficult to translate satisfactorily but perhaps works as “Study-Pictures.” He may have felt that calling the pieces “studies” alone would imply that they were intended only for the perfection of piano technique. The “tableaux” part of the title instead suggests an intention to create character pieces — sonic interpretations of visual images. Perhaps it also pays some sort of tribute to the “Pictures at an Exhibition” set of piano pieces that Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) had composed in the mid-1870s, especially when we call to mind its title in French, “Tableaux d’une exposition.”

The Op. 33 set seems to have caused Rachmaninoff some trouble, for although it was written quickly, in August and September 1911, he did not consider it ready for publication until sometime later. There were originally nine pieces in this first set (the second set, Op. 39, retains nine numbers), but very shortly before publication Rachmaninoff withdrew the original numbers 3, 4 and 5 (in C Minor, A Minor and D Minor respectively), leaving a set of six. The withdrawn A Minor piece subsequently appeared, in revised form, as part of Op. 39. To add to the confusion, the rejected C Minor and D Minor pieces resurfaced in a posthumous edition published in New York in 1950, resulting in a set of eight individual works. That is why one of the Op. 33 pieces on this recording is designated “No. 8,” despite Rachmaninoff’s original intention to publish only six.

The idea of “study pictures” implied by the Études-Tableaux is further reinforced by the fact that in 1930 the Italian composer and master of orchestration Ottorino Respighi was commissioned by the famous conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, to make orchestral arrangements of five of them. Respighi discussed the idea with Rachmaninoff, asking him to describe what images had been in his mind when he wrote them. This resulted in a set of five orchestrated works (using one piece from Op. 33 and four from Op. 39), their titles ranging from “The sea and seagulls” through “Little Red Riding-Hood” to a piece depicting a fair. A further intriguing feature of both the Op. 33 and 39 sets is that they are predominantly in minor keys, with just one piece in each set being in the major (the same is true of the Op. 3 Morceaux de fantaisie).

Composition of the Op. 39 set (1916-17) seems to have presented fewer problems than the Op. 33, with no pieces cut or added. This second set was among the last works that Rachmaninoff wrote before his escape to the United States. Most of the pieces in the set last around three minutes each, although Op. 39 Nos. 2 and 7 are more than double that length.

— John Wagstaff

Rachmaninoff frequently included selections from the preludes at his public concerts. Several composers before him had also written sets of 24 preludes in all the major and minor keys (12 of each), including, probably most famously, Frédéric Chopin. Other cycles of 24 preludes, but specifically by Russian composers, include sets by Aleksandr Scriabin from the 1890s and by César Cui in 1903. Rachmaninoff’s set is unusual in that he did not originally conceive it as a cycle but instead assembled it later by combining his set of ten preludes Op. 23 (of 1901-3) with the 13 preludes Op. 32 (from 1910), then adding the famous Prelude in C-Sharp Minor Op. 3 No. 2, written in 1892 and surely his best known and most recognized piano piece. Opus 3 had also been his first work to be published, by Gutheil in Moscow early in 1893. The full Op. 3 set of five pieces, titled Morceaux de fantaisie (“Fantasy Pieces”), otherwise comprises an opening Elégie, a Mélodie, Polchinelle, and Sérénade. The fact that the Prelude is the second and not the first piece in the set suggests that Rachmaninoff conceived the Op. 3 as a series of independent works that had no strong connection with each other (at least one publisher subsequently issued an edition with the Prelude in first position rather than second). The five pieces are also in entirely unrelated keys. Op. 3 No. 2 begins with a ponderous set of unison octaves before the main theme enters. Is it possible that Rachmaninoff was thinking here of the unison octaves at the start of Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu Op. 66, given that Chopin’s work is also in C-Sharp Minor? Although Rachmaninoff’s piece became world famous, and was almost demanded, rather than requested, as an encore in his own recitals, he made very little from it financially. Gutheil paid him 200 roubles for the set of five pieces — just 40 roubles per piece. The publisher himself presumably did rather better, surely selling the pieces, each of which he also published individually, in great quantities.

The Op. 23 Preludes are dedicated to Rachmaninoff’s piano teacher, Alexander Siloti, while Op. 32 carries no dedication. Prelude Op. 23 No. 5, apparently the earliest of the set, is dated 1901. Of the other pieces presented on this recording, Op. 23 No. 2 in B-Flat Major is very dramatic in character, reminiscent in places of Chopin’s so-called “Revolutionary” Study in C Minor, Op. 10 No. 12. While Op. 23 No. 4 is in D Major, the minor mood is never far away. The Prelude in G Minor, No. 5, is, like the Op. 3 No. 2, very frequently heard, and has a march-like character; Rachmaninoff himself marks it “alla marcia.” It was later transcribed by Fritz Kreisler for violin and piano. The Prelude no. 10 in B Minor from the Op. 32 set presented here seems to have an almost desolate, empty feel that is only partially dispelled by a more passionate middle section.

— John Wagstaff

Liebesleid, or “Love’s Sorrow” was among violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler’s best-loved encore pieces. Composed sometime before 1905, it forms one of three “Dance Melodies from Old Vienna” (Vienna having been Kreisler’s hometown), the other two being the contrasting Liebesfreud (“Love’s Joy”) and Schön’ Rosmarin (“Lovely Rosemary”). Kreisler’s original is simple in form, with contrasting minor and major sections that become slightly more elaborate with each repetition, the underlying idea perhaps being that, even in sorrow, love still encourages us to hope. Rachmaninoff’s transcription is more virtuosic than its model right from the start, while respecting and preserving Kreisler’s basic outline.

— John Wagstaff

C-Sharp Minor seems to have been lucky for Rachmaninoff, for as well as being the key of the renowned Op. 3 No. 2 Prelude it is also that of the famous Vocalise, written in 1915 for voice and piano as an appendix to his set of 13 songs to texts by various poets, Op. 34. The original Vocalise, as its title suggests, is wordless, sung to a single syllable chosen by the vocalist. It was written for, and is dedicated to, Antonina Nezhdanova, a famous operatic soprano of the time. Since its composition the piece has been arranged multiple times for a variety of instruments, including this version for solo piano by Hungarian pianist and musicologist Zoltán Kocsis. Like the C-Sharp Minor and G Minor preludes on this recording, its melody will be instantly recognizable to many listeners.

— John Wagstaff

“Rachmaninoff is one of my favorite composers and I’ve performed his works throughout my career. The selection of piano pieces on this recording reveals a full range of expression. His musical influence, however, goes beyond classical piano solo, choral, and orchestral works. The contemporary piece here, Alone in the World, showcases his influence on today’s composers too.”

— Ian Gindes

Composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were working within the rules of classical composition but had begun to experiment with different forms of harmony and orchestration. While this experimentation led some into musical movements such as Impressionism, Rachmaninoff continued to produce music with his signature sumptuous harmonies inside classical compositional structures in such a way that his works continued to be described as Romantic. His use of open 7th chords, modal harmonic progressions with lush melodies foreshadowed two musical forms that would later both capture the popular imagination and inspire creators — film music and jazz. Both were in development when Rachmaninoff was actively performing and composing, and his influence on them extended well beyond his passing.

Rachmaninoff’s compositions particularly inspired those 20th century musicians who were discovering new sounds in jazz. For instance, 20th century jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans studied Rachmaninoff’s works along with those of Rachmaninoff’s contemporary, Maurice Ravel, and introduced the music of both composers to his fellow jazz musicians. The open 7th chords that Rachmaninoff often incorporated into his music were later taken up by composers and performers as a foundational element of jazz improvisation and composition. Rachmaninoff also influenced works later made famous by pop musicians and singers such as Frank Sinatra.

Hollywood also owes much to Rachmaninoff. His music has been featured in countless films and television shows, from The Seven Year Itch and Dr. Zhivago to Shine, Groundhog Day, The Romanovs, and even an episode of AMC Studios’ The Walking Dead. Mickey Mouse also fell under its spell in the short film The Opry House (1929), which uses the Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.

The piece Alone in the World is a tribute to Rachmaninoff’s influence on Hollywood and jazz. While Rachmaninoff did not influence the development of the first version of this work directly, this piece and many others like it featured in films descend from the romantic traditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The original version was composed by Jerry Goldsmith as a theme for the 1990 film The Russia House. Branford Marsalis’ performance of it was featured as part of the film soundtrack, as well as a vocal performance by Patti Austin with lyrics supplied by songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The version here presented by composer Jed Distler is inspired by Rachmaninoff, Bill Evans, and Frederic Anthony Rzewski. Rachmaninoff would likely have approved of this version for piano, as during his lifetime he himself had supported the works of George Gershwin.

— Ian and Ann Gindes