Chabrier, Rachmaninoff, Debussy & Stravinsky: Jan 9–11, 2026
- cbeeson69
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Emmanuel Chabrier
"España"
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Emmanuel Chabrier 1841-1894 was a French composer and pianist during the Romantic stylistic era whose innovative contributions influenced many well known composers including Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. He began his composing in earnest rather late in life due to his family insisting that he avoid music as a career. Instead he pursued law and only composed in his spare time until he was nearly 40 years old. He was a full time composer only for the final 14 years of his life, and without established formal training. This relative freedom to create as he wished may have helped him become the innovator for other composers who are more closely associated with the advent of Modernism, like Debussy and Stravinsky for example.
Highlights:
España is probably Chabrier’s best known composition. It is programmed frequently in both formal and informal settings.
Chabrier composed España in 1883 after a trip through Spain. His travels there exposed him to new sights and sounds, folk music, and dances of Iberian culture. He combined this with his established flair for light comic opera to create what is essentially Spanish flavored French music.
España was originally conceived as a work for solo piano but soon transformed into the symphonic version, full of vibrant color and evocative sounds. It was premiered in 1883 to overnight success.
A typical performance lasts about 6 minutes.
Resources:
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
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“I am not a composer who produces works to the formulas of preconceived theories. Music, I have always felt, should be the expression of a composer’s complex personality. A composer’s music should express the country of his birth, his love affairs, his religion, the books that have influenced him, the pictures he loves. It should be the sum total of a composer’s experiences.”
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer who primarily wrote in a late Romantic era style during the Modernist era. He is best known today for his piano and symphonic works. Rachmaninoff left Russia after the revolution there, immigrating to the United States in 1918 first living in New York and finally in California. He spent the majority of his time traveling and performing as a soloist but managed to compose in short bursts when he could. It was during one of these short bursts that he created his famous Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
About the music:
Rachmaninoff composed the Rhapsody in just 2 months, July and August of 1934, while on vacation from his demanding piano performance schedule. It was premiered in Baltimore, MD later that year with Philadelphia Orchestra and himself as soloist.
This piece looks and feels like a concerto but is in fact an unorthodox approach to a theme and variation structure where the theme is not fully stated until after the first variation and thereafter appears in skeletal forms, fragments, or (rather famously as with the 18th variation) stretched and turned upside down for example. Rachmaninoff gives it the title “Rhapsody” partly for this reason, leaning into the fantastical world of the theme.
The theme upon which Rachmaninoff bases this work is the last of a set of 24 caprices for solo violin which Nicoló Paganini composed between 1802 and 1817.
In a nod to the theme being Paganini’s 24th caprice, Rachmaninoff creates 24 variations for this Rhapsody. These variations can be grouped in a way that causes the Rhapsody to feel like the three movements of a concerto - variations 1-10 are a sort of expository 1st movement, variations 11-18 are a sort of expansive second movement, and variations 19-24 make for a compelling final movement.
The first ten variations go by very quickly. The fifth variation is wild because the piano and the orchestra are trading sound in each other’s silences. It’s so fast you can hardly tell that’s happening.
Rachmaninoff was fond of incorporating the Dies Irae “Day of Wrath” tune from the Catholic requiem mass into his music and he does that in the seventh and the tenth variations, sort of hiding it in plain sight within the harmonic or rhythmic structures.
Even though this piece flows from variation to variation and doesn’t adhere to a typical concerto structure, variations 11 through 18 form a sort of middle section in terms of style and harmonic variation. The theme comes to us in fragments here and there, giving the listener a sense of place.
Variation 18 is the most recognizable outtake in the piece. The new lush hyper romantic melody that appears in this variation has an entire life of its own outside of the context of the piece in film, tv, and popular music. What’s so cool about this is it’s pretty much just a basic inversion of the Paganini tune! Rachmaninoff turns it upside down, slows the tempo, and VIOLA! (Okay okay, I know it’s voila. But it’s way more fun to say VIOLA!)
From the 18th variation to the 19th we begin to see increasing tempo and drive so that by the time we get to the 23rd variation we feel like whirling dervishes. The final 24th variation brings the Dies Irae back again along with what sound like church bells and then the signature Rachmaninoff triumphant ending with an impish soft tag to cap it off.
A typical performance lasts about 24 minutes.
Resources:
Claude Debussy
"Printemps"
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Claude Debussy 1862-1918 was a French composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose compositional approach signaled the dawning of Modernism and a sharp move away from heavy, thick, German influenced late Romanticism. His music was labeled “impressionistic” and therefore he is associated with other composers and artists of the time as “Impressionist” even though he vehemently rejected this label. He knew his approach to composition offered unique and fresh ways of molding and mapping sound, and he was happy to do things “his way” despite taking some guff for it from the establishment.
About the Music:
Debussy composed Printemps in 1887 while in Italy as a winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome. It was originally scored for piano four hands with a wordless chorus, possibly with the original intention to orchestrate it for full orchestra.
About the inspiration, he wrote to a friend “The idea I had was to compose a work in a very special color which should cover a great range of feelings. It is to be called Springtime, not a descriptive Springtime, but a human one. I should like to express the slow and labored birth of beings and things in nature, their gradual blossoming, and finally the joy of being born into some new life.”
Printemps is a sort of symphonic suite in two movements: 1. Très modéré and 2. Modéré. These function more or less as a prelude followed by a dance.
Printemps wasn’t premiered until 1913, after having been orchestrated by his colleague Henri Büsser at Debussy’s request and under his supervision. This orchestrated version retains the piano four hands, but replaces the chorus with a very colorful full orchestra.
Approximately eleventy trillion extra points go to whichever of the two of those guys decided to include the super juicy viola solo in the first movement. 😎🎉
A typical performance of Printemps lasts about 15 minutes.
Resources:
Igor Stravinsky
Petrushka
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Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian born composer who immigrated to France in 1934 and then to the United States in 1945. He was very well established as a leading composer of the Modernist style growing out of the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, and continues to be one of the most highly regarded, influential, and most performed composers of the 20th century.
About the Music:
Stravinsky composed Petrushka in 1911. It was the second in what would become a set of three ballets produced by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. He revised and reworked the ballet score into an orchestral suite in 1946 which was published in 1947. This is the version most frequently performed now, although the ballet remains very popular as well.
Petrushka is the name of the lead character, a coarse trickster puppet character popular throughout Europe; Punch in England, Pulcinella in Italy for example. The ballet storyline focuses on a love triangle between Petrushka and two other puppet characters, the Ballerina and the Moor. In the story all three of these puppets are brought to life by a Magician during the Shrovetide fair. Petrushka is in love with the Ballerina. The Ballerina rejects him in favor of the Moor. Petrushka challenges the Moor, who overpowers and kills him in front of the horrified crowd at the fair. The police and the Magician are called to the scene where the Magician calms the crowd by reminding them these are only puppets. Petrushka’s ghost rises up to mock the Magician before collapsing again in a second death.
A typical performance lasts about 38 minutes.
Resources:
🤓More nerding!🤓
Check out this interview excerpt with Colorado Symphony collaborative pianist Hsiao-ling Lin! For the full interview on what it's like being an orchestral pianist, how cool the Stravinsky piano and celeste parts are, a guest appearance by Makoto Ozone, and a very very important rat versus mouse question, head to the Nerdware Store for a Complete Concert Guide or become a Backstage Pass subscriber.
The Complete Concert Guide includes more video resources, fun facts, and audio notes as well as a short but juicy interview with guest soloist Makoto Ozone.
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