Grant Park Music Festival 2018: Book 2

The Concerto consists of three large movements. The first is a modified

sonata form that begins with a haunting theme, recalled in the later

movements, that sets perfectly the Concerto’s mood of somber intensity;

the

espressivo

second theme is presented by the pianist. The development

section is concerned mostly with transformations of fragments from

the first theme. A massive cadenza leads to the recapitulation. The

earlier material is greatly abbreviated in this closing section. The second

movement, subtitled

Intermezzo

, which Dr. Otto Kinkleday described in his

notes for the New York premiere as “tender and melancholy, yet not tearful,”

is a set of free variations with an inserted episode. “One of the most dashing

and exciting pieces of music ever composed for piano and orchestra” is how

Patrick Piggot described the finale. The movement is structured in three

large sections. The first part has an abundance of themes that Rachmaninov

derived from those of the first movement. The relationship is further

strengthened in the second section, where both earlier themes are recalled

in slow tempo. The pace again quickens, and the music from the first part

of the finale returns with some modifications. A brief solo cadenza leads

to the coda, a dazzling final stanza with fistfuls of chords that leads to the

dramatic closing gestures.