Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43

There’s an attractive theory that the Paganini Rhapsody is based a fanciful scenario about the legendary violinist who wrote the tune that inspired it. It is true that Rachmaninov did indeed offer such a scenario to Fokine and that the choreographer did make a ballet out of it, to be danced to the music of the Paganini Rhapsody, for Covent Garden in 1939. But the Rhapsody was written in 1934, three years before the composer first communicated his ideas to Fokine. “I give only the main outlines,” he told Fokine in 1937, “because the details are still hazy to me” - which seems to dispose of the notion that he had worked them all out while writing the music in 1934.

Of course, the main events of Rachmaninov’s scenario do coincide with those of the Rhapsody. Paganini himself was to be represented by the theme, from the last of his Twenty-four Caprices for Solo Violin, on which the work is based. The Devil, to whom he was said by his more superstitious contemporaries to have sold his soul in return for his fabulous technique, was to make his first entry with the first appearance of the traditional Dies Irae motif in variation No.7. The love story was destined for the group of mainly slower variations from No.11 to the famously expressive No.18. “The triumph of Paganini’s art, his diabolical pizzicato” would go very naturally (though very briefly) with the quasi pizzicato variation No.19. On the other hand, the Dies Irae is a familiar feature in Rachmaninov’s music from the Symphony No.1 of 1895 to the Symphonic Dances of 1940. And in both of Rachmaninov’s other sets of variations - on themes by Chopin and Corelli - there is a similarly constructed central slow-movement element between quicker opening and closing sections.

The Paganini Rhapsody is, in fact, a miracle of purely musical thought. It is composed with great wit - which is evident from the moment Rachmaninov presents the skeletal first variation before he introduces the Paganini theme itself on unaccompanied violins - and it is scored with quite extraordinary technical virtuosity. It is brilliantly written not only for the piano but also for the orchestra and for the two of them in combination, often in exhilaratingly precarious textural situations.

The construction is ingenious too in that, without pausing for breath, it runs through twenty-four variations in less then twenty-five minutes and in styles as different as, say, the poetically impressionist No.11 and the aggressively march-like No.22.

The shortest section is the minimal introduction, which makes a discreet point of stressing an apparently trivial but actually very important four-note figure from the Paganini theme. The longest - the only variation to exceed two minutes - is the Andante cantabile No.18, which is based on an inversion of that same little figure. In the Più vivo coda to the last variation the Dies Irae motif and the four-note figure are summarily but conclusively combined.

Perhaps Rachmaninov’s greatest achievement here is that, having set out in his maturity to measure his technique against that of other composers of variations on the same theme - Liszt and Brahms prominent among them - he recovered the youthful lyricism which had evaded him for nearly twenty years

There is a theory - attractive but unconvincing - that the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is based on a fanciful scenario about the life of the legendary violinist. It is true that Rachmaninov did indeed offer such a scenario to Fokine and that the choreographer did make a ballet out of it, to be danced to the music of the Paganini Rhapsody, for Covent Garden in 1939. But the Rhapsody was written in 1934, three years before the composer first communicated his ideas to Fokine. “I give only the main outlines,” he told Fokine in 1937, “because the details are still hazy to me” - which seems to dispose of the notion that he had worked them all out while writing the music in 1934.

Of course, the main events of Rachmaninov’s scenario do coincide with those of the Rhapsody. Paganini himself was to be represented by the theme, from the last of his Twenty-four Caprices for Solo Violin, on which the work is based. The Devil, to whom he was said by his more superstitious contemporaries to have sold his soul in return for his fabulous technique, was to make his first entry with the first appearance of the Dies Irae motif in variation No.7. The love story was destined for the group of mainly slower variations from No.11 to the famously expressive No.18. “The triumph of Paganini’s art, his diabolical pizzicato” would go very naturally (though very briefly) with the quasi pizzicato variation No.19. But the Dies Irae is a familiar feature in Rachmaninov’s music from the Symphony No.1 of 1895 to the Symphonic Dances of 1940. And in both of Rachmaninov’s other sets of variations - on themes by Chopin and Corelli - there is a similarly constructed central slow-movement element between quicker opening and closing sections.

The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is, in fact, a miracle of purely musical thought. It is composed with great wit - which is evident from the moment Rachmaninov presents the skeletal first variation before he introduces the Paganini theme itself on unaccompanied violins - and it is scored with quite extraordinary technical virtuosity. It is brilliantly written not only for the piano but also for the orchestra and for the two of them in combination, often in exhilaratingly precarious textural situations. The construction is ingenious too in that, without pausing for breath, it runs through twenty-four variations in less then twenty-five minutes and in styles as different as, say, the poetically impressionist No.11 and the aggressively march-like No.22. The shortest section is the minimal introduction, which makes a discreet point of stressing an apparently trivial but actually very important four-note figure from the Paganini theme. The longest - the only variation to exceed two minutes - is the Andante cantabile No.18, which is based on an inversion of that same little figure. In the Più vivo coda to the last variation the Dies Irae motif and the four-note figure are summarily but conclusively combined.

Perhaps Rachmaninov’s greatest achievement here is that, having set out in his maturity to measure his technique against that of other composers of variations on the same theme - Liszt and Brahms prominent among them - he recovered the youthful lyricism which had evaded him for nearly twenty years.

Gerald Larner©

There is a theory - attractive but unconvincing - that the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is based on a fanciful scenario about the life of the legendary violinist. It is true that Rachmaninov did indeed offer such a scenario to Fokine and that the choreographer did make a ballet out of it, to be danced to the music of the Paganini Rhapsody, for Covent Garden in 1939. But the Rhapsody was written in 1934, three years before the composer first communicated his ideas to Fokine. “I give only the main outlines,” he told Fokine in 1937, “because the details are still hazy to me” - which seems to dispose of the notion that he had worked them all out while writing the music in 1934.

Of course, the main events of Rachmaninov’s scenario do coincide with those of the Rhapsody. Paganini himself was to be represented by the theme, from the last of his Twenty-four Caprices for Solo Violin, on which the work is based. The Devil, to whom he was said by his more superstitious contemporaries to have sold his soul in return for his fabulous technique, was to make his initial entry with the first appearance of the Dies Irae motif in variation No.7. The love story was destined for the group of mainly slower variations from No.11 to the famously expressive No.18. “The triumph of Paganini’s art, his diabolical pizzicato” would go very naturally (though very briefly) with the quasi pizzicato variation No.19. But the Dies Irae is a familiar feature in Rachmaninov’s music from the Symphony No.1 of 1895 to the Symphonic Dances of 1940. And in both of Rachmaninov’s other sets of variations - on themes by Chopin and Corelli - there is a similarly constructed central slow-movement element between quicker opening and closing sections.

The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is, in fact, a miracle of purely musical thought. It is composed with great wit - which is clear from the moment Rachmaninov presents the skeletal first variation before he introduces the Paganini theme itself, unaccompanied as if on a solo violin - and it is scored with quite extraordinary technical virtuosity. The textural ingenuity of the piece is scarcely less evident in the version for two pianos, as performed on this occasion, than in the commonly heard version for piano and orchestra. The construction is ingenious too in that, without pausing for breath, it runs through twenty-four variations in less then twenty-five minutes and in styles as different as, say, the poetically impressionist No.11 and the aggressively march-like No.22. The shortest section is the minimal introduction, which makes a discreet point of stressing an apparently trivial but actually very important four-note figure from the Paganini theme. The longest - the only variation to exceed two minutes - is the Andante cantabile No.18, which is based on an inversion of that same little figure. In the Più vivo coda to the last variation the Dies Irae motif and the four-note figure are summarily but conclusively combined.

Perhaps Rachmaninov’s greatest achievement here is that, having set out in his maturity to measure his technique against that of other composers of variations on the same theme - Liszt and Brahms prominent among them - he recovered the youthful lyricism which had evaded him for nearly twenty years.

Gerald Larner ©2004