Rachmaninov: Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39

The seventeen Études-tableaux date from the last decade of Rachmaninov’s life in Russia. By this time he had completed Preludes in each of the major and minor keys and was ready to move in a slightly different direction. By qualifying the term with the word tableau, Rachmaninov seemed to be suggesting the introduction of a visual or even programmatic element into these complex ‘studies’. Vladimir Ashkenazy recorded the Op. 33 set of Études-tableaux four years apart, taping Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 6 in September 1977 and Nos. 1, 4, 7 and 8 in April 1981. He recorded the Op. 39 set twice – first in February 1973 and then in June 1985 / September 1986. The 1985-86 recordings were released internationally on CD, and this is the first international release of the earlier 1973 recordings.

For modern audiences the name of Sergei Rachmaninov, who was born in 1873, conjures up great memorable tunes primarily from his second piano concerto (used in the film Brief Encounter) and second symphony; he was indeed the last flowering of Russian late Romanticism. For his contemporaries, however, he was one of the greatest pianists and who was an expert in expressing moods in the briefest time scale – he was a brilliant miniaturist. He wrote 17 Etudes-Tableaux and 26 Préludes, this collection provides all of the former and 5 of the latter including the one (in C# minor), written when was only 19, which became so popular that it haunted him as he was known to the general public by that piece alone. The Second Sonata is in one movement but three distinct sections, with the slower central movement providing some respite from the turbulence of the outer movements. The Variations on a theme of Corelli was Rachmaninov’s last work for solo piano and is based on the traditional tune La follia which Corelli used in his twelfth violin sonata. The Variations are skilfully wrought as they are in the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, the work that immediately followed it; the tune on which the Variations are made is the 24th Caprice for solo violin by the brilliant violinist-composer Paganini.

In the Etudes-Tableaux Op. 39, among the last pieces Rachmaninov wrote before he left Russia for good in 1917, one can sense the turbulent new era for his country reflected in the innovative stretching of the instrument’s limits, firmly placing the composer in the twentieth century.

Alternating the roles of soloist and accompanist,Alexander Melnikov has brought together here two works emblematic of Rachmaninov at his creative peak, before it was brutally interrupted by the sound and the fury of 1917: the famous Études-tableaux Op.39 and Six Poems Op.38 were followed by a very long silence. In 1931, it was a broken man who produced the Variations on a Theme by Corelli, a bitter work that yearns for a past long gone.

The coloratura soprano Elena Brilova studied with Nina Dorliac at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1985 she won first prize at the international singing competition in Holland and has since sung at the Bolshoi, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Düsseldorf from 1998 to 2005 and in Japan, China,Taiwan and Israel. She has worked with Alexander Melnikov for many years, exploring the Russian song repertoire from Glinka to Shostakovich.

Alexander Melnikov’s CDs for harmonia mundi include a Scriabin recital and acclaimed collaborations with Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras. Since 2002 he has taught at the RNCM.

The duo team of cellist Steven Doane and pianist Barry Snyder made a number of award-winning recordings for Bridge Records in the 1990s. Their traversal of the complete music for cello and piano of Gabriel Fauré won several awards, including a citation in the French Journal Repertoire.

The duo returns with superbly wrought renderings of two major Rachmaninoff masterpieces—a heartbreaking reading of the Cello Sonata, Op. 19; and the virtuosic Études-tableaux, Op. 39 for solo piano. Also included are Rachmaninoff's beautiful miniatures for Cello and Piano - Danse Orientale and Lied.

Rachmaninov’s Études-tableaux explore a plethora of colours, textures and sonorites and demonstrate the emotional range of the composer’s expression. Howard Shelley gives authoritative performances of these studies and tackles the technical challenges with an easy brilliance.

These two works are all too often neglected by performers but pianist Alain Lefèvre has incorporated them into his concert repertoire for over twenty years. The intensely lyrical and poetic works of Klavierstücke are a testament to Schubert’s great maturity; and the finely crafted little symphonic poems for piano of the Études-tableaux Op. 39 are surely some of Rachmaninov’s finest compositions.