Easter 6 - The Sunday Musical Offering - Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 - Adagio

Today is the Sabbath - I encourage you to worship in your church or visit a different church and learn something new.

Okay, since today many Americans celebrate Mother's Day, I thought the Musical Offering should be some of the loveliest music I know. I first came to know Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony as a high school student in Montclair, New Jersey. Each year, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra would play subscription concerts in the High School auditorium and one spring their conductor Thomas Michalak programmed this work. I never forgot the performance - nor the passion with which Maestro Michalak called forth from his musicians.

Later on, I purchased a recording of Andre Previn leading the London Symphony Orchestra. I am not sure that there are any more grooves left on that LP because I played it so much!

While the entire composition is worth a listen, I am offering the magnificent Third Movement (Adagio). From the EMI Classics album notes: "Serge Rachmaninoff, together with his wife and daughter, escaped from Moscow to Dresden in the autumn of 1906, where the popular pianist, conductor and composer sought peace and anonymity in order to compose. In October he began work on his second symphony, finishing the first draft around New Year’s Day 1907 and orchestrating it in the following months. The failure of his first symphony had resulted in severe despondency and an inability to compose that was overcome only with the help of hypnosis. Rachmaninoff conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 2 in St. Petersburg in January 1908. The lushly orchestrated four-movement work is filled with sweeping melodies and features a vibrant Scherzo, an achingly beautiful Adagio and the Dies irae as an idée fixe. From its premiere, the symphony not only eliminated the humiliation of the failure of its predecessor but became – and has remained – one of the composer’s most popular and best loved works."

Enjoy this inspired musical moment here played by the Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra. The conductor is Naci Ozguc and the clarinet solo is played by Mertol Mutlu. A perfect gift for Mother's Day.

Love One Another - Brian