Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 08/10/2011, uploaded on 02/21/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The étude, or study piece, was already a common element in piano instruction by the beginning of the 19^th century. Its early champions were Clementi and Czerny, today practically household names for any student of the piano. Yet, it was not until Frédéric Chopin that the étude was elevated from its original mere didactic purpose to also being an outlet for the composer’s creativity. In a sense, it became as much a “study piece” for the composer as the pianist, with a virtually blank canvas for him to exercise, grapple with, and expand his knowledge of his craft and its means of execution in performance. Chopin’s example was followed by many, and within the passing of a century, the étude seemed to expand once again to take on the additional task of programmatic music with the composition of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s two sets of Etudes-Tableaux, opp. 33 and 39, composed in 1911 and 1916-17, respectively. Unlike other composers of programmatic music, Rachmaninoff did not reveal the images he had in mind when composing these sets, believing that the composer should not divulge too much of his method of creativity, but instead preferred for the listener to paint his own picture from what he hears.

The first set of Etudes-Tableaux, opus 33, was composed at the Ivanovka estate, a favorite retreat of Rachmaninoff’s, owned by his aristocratic relatives, the Satins. Many of his early works were composed in the idyllic atmosphere at Ivanovka. Opus 33 followed the composition of the thirteen preludes of opus 32 by only a year, and thus has more in common with those works than the second set of études, opus 39, composed five years later. Indeed, they are not far removed from the preludes themselves, despite aiming at a different artistic goal, and likewise are not as technically demanding as their younger brethren. Originally, Rachmaninoff composed nine études, but upon their publication in 1914, he withdrew nos. 3, 4, and 5. The fourth étude was supplanted into opus 39. Though it remains numbered among its original brethren, it is more often than not omitted in performances. The other two remained in manuscript form and were not published until after Rachmaninoff’s death in 1943. Though Rachmaninoff surely had his reasons for removing these three pieces, it is a general practice today to place the two posthumously published études in their original place.       Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.