Two Pieces Op.2 (c.1892)

Prélude

Danse orientale

After the piano, the cello was Rachmaninov’s favourite instrument. It is true that he wrote nothing for it in the last forty years of his life but after the Cello Sonata in G minor of 1901 - which was as important an addition to the repertoire as Chopin’s in the same key - he wrote no other kind of chamber music either. Though dating from perhaps as long as nine years before the Sonata, the Two Pieces Op.2 are dedicated to the same cellist, Anatoly Brandukov, and display the same interest in the expressive potential of the instrument. The Prélude in F major, originally written for piano in 1891, finds its definitive form here both in the lyrical treatment of the main theme, introduced by the cello in the opening bars, and the animated exchange between the two instruments in the middle section. The Danse orientale is a, for Rachmaninov, fairly rare indulgence in exoticism - it was written at about the same time as his gypsy opera Aleko - and makes resourceful use of cello colouring in that respect. While the bell sounds heard on the piano at the beginning and at the end represent one of the composer’s lasting obsessions, the seductive melodic line and modal harmonies that motivate the greater part of the piece are more readily associated with such older contemporaries as Rimsky-Korsakov or Balakirev.