The Rock (Rachmaninoff)

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The Rock, Op. 7 (Russian: Утёс) is a fantasia for orchestra written by Sergei Rachmaninoff in the summer of 1893. It is one of his earlier pieces, written before the fateful premiere of his First Symphony.

As an epigraph for the composition, Rachmaninoff chose a couplet from a poem by Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov:

The golden cloud slept through the night
Upon the breast of the giant-rock

He later mentioned, however, that much of his inspiration for The Rock came from Anton Chekhov, a Russian writer.

Rachmaninoff very much respected fellow Russian composer Tchaikovsky, and in a meeting between the two at the home of Rachmaninoff's former teacher Sergei Taneyev, Tchaikovsky promised to include The Rock in the program of a forthcoming concert tour. The promise was never realized, however, as Tchaikovsky died suddenly later that year.

[edit] References

• Brown, David. CD pamphlet: "Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2, The Rock -- Russian National Orchestra / Mikhail Pletnev". Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg. 1994.
• Garcia, Emanuel E., Rachmaninoff's Emotional Collapse and Recovery: The First Symphony and its Aftermath. "Psychoanalytic Review". April 2004.