Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

A six-week break in his concert schedule began on December , providing an essential period of rest for the almost -year-old. However, with the arrival of the new year, his declining health became increasingly evident. Welcome news ar- rived amid these di culties on February , when Rachmanino and his wife, Natalia, re- ceived their nal citizenship papers. e tour resumed two days later, and the ailing musician struggled through six more recitals and con- certs, including a pair of solo performances of Beethoven’s Concerto No. and the Rhapsody on a eme of Paganini with the Chicago Sympho- ny Orchestra on February and , . e Chicago audience remained unaware of his con- dition. As Claudia Cassidy reported in the Chi- cago Tribune the morning a er Rachmanino ’s opening performance: “His entrance won stand- ing tribute from orchestra and capacity audi- ence, his Beethoven stirred a storm of grateful applause, and his own Rhapsody on a eme of Paganini ended the concert in a kind of ava- lanche of cumulative excitement.” Unable to maintain physical momentum, Rach- manino abandoned the tour a er his Febru- ary recital in Knoxville, TN. He returned to California and was immediately admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. On March , an ambulance transported Rachmani- no to his Beverly Hills home. e great musi- cian fell into a coma on March and died two days later—just four days shy of his th birthday. e Symphonic Dances , op. , endure as the nal testament to Rachmanino ’s composition- al artistry and, in many respects, a valedictory summation of his life and career. During the summer of , he recuperated from minor surgery for several weeks at the Honeyman Es- tate in Centerport, NY, on the North Shore of Long Island. ree movements of an orches- tral score took shape during this convalescence: “Noon,” “Evening,” and “Midnight,” according to So ya Satin, his cousin and sister-in-law. Serge Rachmaninoff seated at the piano Rachmanino previewed the music for Mikhail Fokine, the pioneering Russian dancer and cho- reographer who had brought the Rhapsody on a eme of Paganini to the ballet stage in . e Fokine connection dated back to pre-rev- olutionary times, when Rachmanino initiated, then abandoned, a ballet project based on e Scythians for Moscow’s Bolshoy eater. Con- temporary accounts indicated that the compos- er dra ed portions of the ballet music in , al- though no documentary evidence has survived. Some scholars have suggested that Rachmani- no recycled music for e Scythians years later in the Symphonic Dances . He completed the score rst in a two-piano version, signing the manuscript “August , , Long Island.” On August , Rachmanino wrote to longtime collaborator and conductor Eugene Ormandy o ering the Philadelphia Orchestra the rights to premiere his new Fantastic Dances (later retitled Symphonic Dances ). Rachmanino ex- plained his choice of title during an interview published in the New York World-Telegram (Oc- tober , ): “It should have been called just ‘Dances,’ but I was afraid people would think I had written dance music for jazz orchestras.” It seems doubtful that anyone would confuse the late-Romantic symphonist with a big-band composer. is droll assertion might be an al- lusion to the prominent alto saxophone theme in the rst movement. Rachmanino sought the advice of popular composer and arranger Robert Russell Bennett while preparing this, his rst, saxophone part. e Philadelphia Orches- tra under Ormandy gave the world premiere in Philadelphia on January , . Based on musical quotations in the Symphonic Dances , one suspects that the original move- ment titles traced the passing of Rachmanino ’s own days. A vigorous march begins the Non allegro . Later, the saxophone solo imparts a mel- ancholy air. Material from his Symphony No. in D minor, op. ( )—a piece of his early maturity, maligned by many but prized by the composer—appears toward the end as a string and wind chorale. e Andante con moto waltz- es with élan. Occasionally, the dance-like triple meter grinds to a halt, only to resume newly embroidered by woodwinds and a solo violin. Rachmanino ’s web of allusions thickens in the nal movement, as the cycle of life comes to its completion. Strains of his All-Night Vigil , op. , ( ) suggest a late-hour setting. An- other prominent melody recalls the “Dies irae” chant from the Requiem Mass, which he also incorporated in numerous other compositions. Rachmanino ’s inscription on the score hints at the serene closure brought by the Symphonic Dances : “I thank ee, Lord.” –Program notes © 2026 Todd E. Sullivan MARINALSOP Following her rst Chicago Symphony Orches- tra concerts between and at Ravinia, Marin Alsop became an annual guest at the fes- tival in and Chief Conductor since . e only conductor to have earned a MacArthur Fellowship, Alsop received the League of Amer- ican Orchestras’ Golden Baton Award in , and last season she made her long-awaited Ber- lin Philharmonic debut. She was a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist for / , leading several “America at ” programs, and is the curator and director of the Cincinnati May Festi- val. Alsop will chair the jury for ’s inaugural Cliburn Competition for Conductors, having led the nal rounds of the and piano competitions and chaired the jury. Alsop is currently director of graduate conducting at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity. She founded the Taki Alsop Conduct- ing Fellowship in to nurture the careers of female conductors, providing mentorship and a network of nearly women active in the eld, including more than titled music di- rectors and chief conductors around the world. A documentary about Alsop’s life, e Conduc- tor , premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the Focus on the Arts Award at the Naples International Film Festival. In addition to her role at Ravinia, Alsop is Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia (London) and Philadelphia Orchestras, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival at the University of Maryland. In she became Music Director Laureate of the Baltimore Sym- phony Orchestra, concluding a -year tenure that included the founding of the OrchKids youth music initiative, and she is Honorary Conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony and São Paulo Symphony following her six- and sev- en-year artistic leadership of those ensembles, respectively. Deeply committed to new music, Alsop was music director of the Cabrillo Festi- val of Contemporary Music for years, during which she led premieres. Her award-win- ning discography of more than titles in- cludes Brahms, Dvořák, and Proko ev cycles on Naxos and further recordings on Decca, Har- monia Mundi, and Sony Classical. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 20 – AUGUST 2 , 2026 96 RAVINIA / PATRICKGIPSON(ALSOP)