Moments musicaux, Op.16

Although the title of Rachmaninov’s Moments musicaux inevitably calls Schubert to mind, the music itself does not. Indeed, bearing in mind the expressive scope, the virtuoso inspiration and the sheer size of some of these pieces - No.3 in B minor is not far short of ten minutes in length - it is difficult to imagine why Rachmaninov chose a title implying something more modest in every way. It could be that, at the age of 23 and not long out of the Moscow Conservatoire, he was uncertain of the quality of the pieces and did not want to make too much of them. Since in later life he excluded all but No.2 in E flat minor from his own recital repertoire, his mature judgement seems to have been against them.

If some of the Moments musicaux are more interesting than others it is because Rachmaninov’s creative personality was going through a rapid but inconsistent development at this point in his career. So, while the melancholy No.1 in B minor recalls the kind of thing he had already published in the Morceaux de fantaisie, Op.3, and the Morceaux de salon, Op.10, there is nothing in those earlier collections to compare with the tumultuous No.2 in E flat minor or the breathtakingly dynamic No.4 in E minor. The third and fifth pieces are both meditations - the Andante cantabile in B minor a sustained and sombre examination of just one elegiac theme, the Adagio sostenuto in D flat major a contrastingly serene barcarolle floating on a gently rocking bass line. The most prophetic of all perhaps is the last, a characteristically heroic and incontrovertibly conclusive piece of epic poetry.

Although the title of Rachmaninov’s Moments musicaux inevitably calls Schubert to mind, the music itself does not. Indeed, bearing in mind the expressive scope, the virtuoso inspiration and the sheer size of some of these pieces - No.3 in B minor is not far short of ten minutes in length - it is difficult to imagine why Rachmaninov chose a title implying something more modest in every way. The answer is perhaps that, at the age of twenty-three and not long out of the Moscow Conservatoire, he was uncertain of the quality of the pieces and did not want to make too much of them. Since in later life he excluded all but No.2 in E flat minor from his own recital repertoire, his mature judgement seems to have been against them. While pianists like Medtner, Horowitz and Moiseiwitsch also had their individual favourites, there has long been a general reluctance to present the six pieces as a complete set.

If some of the Moments musicaux are more interesting than others it is because Rachmaninov’s creative personality was going through a rapid but inconsistent development at this point in his career. So, while the melancholy No.1 in B minor recalls the kind of thing he had already published in the Morceaux de fantaisie, Op.3, and the Morceaux de salon, Op.10, there is nothing in those earlier collections to compare with the tumultuous No.2 in E flat minor or the breathtakingly dynamic No.4 in E minor. The third and fifth pieces are both meditations - the Andante cantabile in B minor a sustained and sombre examination of just one elegiac theme, the Adagio sostenuto in D flat major a contrastingly serene barcarolle floating on a gently rocking bass line. The most prophetic of all perhaps is the last, a characteristically heroic and incontrovertibly conclusive piece of epic poetry.