Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Piano sonata No. 2 in B flat minor Op. 36

Sergei Rachmaninov wrote the majority of his major works before he crossed “the shadow line:” Trio élégiaque, Sonata for cello and piano, three piano concertos , two symphonies, three operas, the symphonic Isle of the Dead (based on a painting by A. Böcklin) and the choral symphony The Bells to texts by E.A. Poe. In 1913, before his creative potential visibly decreased, Rachmaninov still managed to write the original version of his Second Piano Sonata in B flat minor (which he modified in 1931). This work was soon performed by some of the most eminent pianists of the time, such as – apart from Rachmaninov himself – young Vladimir Horowitz, an unparalleled performer of this composition in terms of existing phonography (which, sadly, does not include Rachmaninov). By consent of the composer, his good friend, Horowitz played his own version of the piece, a compromise between the variants of 1913 and 1931.
∙ The tripartite Sonata in B flat minor (in its second and generally accepted version) opens with Allegro agitato, consisting of two themes: the first, a more decisive one and “masculine,” is in the main key, while the second, contrasting in its lyricism, is moved to the main key’s major parallel, D flat major. Yet one would be mistaken to expect that Rachmaninov would respect the classical rules of the form further on in the piece. What comes next has in fact very little to do with tradition, since both the development and the recapitulation are governed by the first theme submitted to elaborate variation procedures.
∙ Movement Two (Non Allegro, in E minor), is constructed according to an ABA’ plan, the extremities of which come in the form of a musing nocturne, one – characteristically for Rachmaninov – with a high variety of texture, multilayered and nostalgic. Its first appearance (A) is crowned with a climax built over a long segment, while the second (A’) briefly brightens the entirely new material added in E major. In contrast, the middle section of this movement of Sonata in B flat minor is highly aggressive; it connotes with the main theme of Movement One, which becomes, at this point, the leading motif of the entire cycle.
∙ Its hegemony is further confirmed in the virtuoso Finale (Allegro molto, B flat minor), an original sonata allegro – original, for almost devoid of recapitulation. The sonata’s triumphant coda, moved by Rachmaninov to B flat major, brings an apotheosis of the main theme of the first movement.

Marcin Gmys