Spring Cantata (Rachmaninoff)

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Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote his Vesna ("Spring") Cantata for Baritone, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op. 20 in 1902 after his famous Second Piano Concerto. The work is based on a poem by Nikolay Nekrasov and describes the return of the Zelyoniy shum, or "green rustle". The poem by Nekrasov tells of a husband who, fraught with murderous thoughts towards his unfaithful wife during the winter season, is ultimately freed from his frustration and choler by the return of spring.

Rachmaninoff was never able to revise the cantata's orchestration as he had intended.

[edit] References

  • Griffiths, Steve. "Spring Promise". The Musical Times. Musical Times Publications Ltd. 1994.
  • Reither, Joseph. "Chronicle of Exile". Tempo. Cambridge University press. 1951.
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