The six songs of Rachmaninoff’s opus 38 were the last the composer wrote, marking a premature end to a rather prolific output of some eighty-five creations for voice and piano. Only the Three Russian Songs for chorus followed, an entire decade later, these enchanting and mesmerizing songs. Rachmaninoff composed the songs of opus 38 in 1916, the year before he witnessed his beloved Russia fall to the Bolsheviks. Leaving his homeland forever and emigrating to the West, Rachmaninoff was forced to support himself and his family with extensive concertizing. With such a busy schedule, composition of any sort was put aside entirely. Even once resumed, Rachmaninoff composed comparatively little in his later years. Regretfully, these events occurred as he was reaching the apogee of his craft as a composer of vocal music. These last songs, marked by an acute sensitivity to text while maintaining his distinctive pianistic style, were amplified by a more worthy selection of poems. To this point, Rachmaninoff had largely relied on the lesser known poets of a deceased generation. However, through his correspondence with a young woman named Marietta Shaginian, the composer was introduced to his living contemporaries and the Symbolist poetry popular in France at that time. Rachmaninoff responded in kind to this new style of poetry with more subtle uses of harmony and tonality.
The fifth song of this set, commonly translated as “Sleep” or “The Dream,” is based on a poem by Fyodor Sologub. Rachmaninoff captures the blithe and welcoming realm of dreams in his marvelous writing for the piano. Opening with a solitary motif descending slowly, the real world seems to magically disappear and is replaced with, at the first harmonious chord, the misty world of dreams. Atop an accompaniment that grows in richness with increasing ornamentation, the voice sings its mesmerizing melody that is wholly ethereal. The piano gives an extended coda following the voice’s last soft utterances and by the songs’ conclusion, the listener feels as if he must awake from the dream he just experienced.Joseph DuBose
Classical Music | Soprano
Sergei Rachmaninov
Son (The Dream), Op. 38, No. 5 Play
Recorded on 07/01/2010, uploaded on 10/24/2011
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
The six songs of Rachmaninoff’s opus 38 were the last the composer wrote, marking a premature end to a rather prolific output of some eighty-five creations for voice and piano. Only the Three Russian Songs for chorus followed, an entire decade later, these enchanting and mesmerizing songs. Rachmaninoff composed the songs of opus 38 in 1916, the year before he witnessed his beloved Russia fall to the Bolsheviks. Leaving his homeland forever and emigrating to the West, Rachmaninoff was forced to support himself and his family with extensive concertizing. With such a busy schedule, composition of any sort was put aside entirely. Even once resumed, Rachmaninoff composed comparatively little in his later years. Regretfully, these events occurred as he was reaching the apogee of his craft as a composer of vocal music. These last songs, marked by an acute sensitivity to text while maintaining his distinctive pianistic style, were amplified by a more worthy selection of poems. To this point, Rachmaninoff had largely relied on the lesser known poets of a deceased generation. However, through his correspondence with a young woman named Marietta Shaginian, the composer was introduced to his living contemporaries and the Symbolist poetry popular in France at that time. Rachmaninoff responded in kind to this new style of poetry with more subtle uses of harmony and tonality.
The fifth song of this set, commonly translated as “Sleep” or “The Dream,” is based on a poem by Fyodor Sologub. Rachmaninoff captures the blithe and welcoming realm of dreams in his marvelous writing for the piano. Opening with a solitary motif descending slowly, the real world seems to magically disappear and is replaced with, at the first harmonious chord, the misty world of dreams. Atop an accompaniment that grows in richness with increasing ornamentation, the voice sings its mesmerizing melody that is wholly ethereal. The piano gives an extended coda following the voice’s last soft utterances and by the songs’ conclusion, the listener feels as if he must awake from the dream he just experienced. Joseph DuBose
More music by Sergei Rachmaninov
Romance, Op. 11 No. 5
Prelude Op. 3, No. 2, in c-sharp minor
Prelude Op. 32, No. 5, in G Major
Etude-Tableau in A minor, Op. 39, No. 6
Prelude Op. 23, No. 10, in G-flat Major
Loneliness, Op. 21 No. 6
Prelude Op. 23 No. 5
Moment Musicaux Op. 16, No. 3
Piano Concerto No. 3 in d minor, Op. 30
Serenade, Op. 3
Performances by same musician(s)
V molchan’i nochi taynoy (In the silence of the secret night), Opus 4, No. 3
Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne (Sing not to me, beautiful maiden), Op. 4, No. 4
Rechnaya liliya (The waterlily), Op. 8, No. 1
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