PART I
The "minorness" of Rachmaninoff's
aesthetics and where (not) to
look for its origins
1. Structural principle and gesture
2. Old and New in Rachmaninoff's
Manuscript
3. Hypertrophy-but not in interpretation
4. Appassionato vs sostenuto
5. Feel-and what to do with it
6. How the “very old composer”
Rachmaninov teaches new things
PART II
Approaching the second
half of the motto
look at the old as the
new and the new as the old
4. Appassionato vs sostenuto
It could be said that all good music, whose composers have a strong structural sensibility, is moved by the interacting and opposing forces of the Apollonian and Dionysian elements - that is, the forces of appassionato vs sostenuto. Agens versus stable form, gesture versus structure, melding of form versus individualizing of components, articulatory minutiae and the charm of the moment versus farsighted vision to and beyond the horizon. Though they are antithetical and in perpetual conflict, they are fruitful precisely because of their tensions and constant clashes.
When I look for interpretive approaches to works of music, it is usually very important to follow these two principles and their interrelationships, which form the unique poetics of a particular author. The Apollonian principle emphasizes order, control, harmony; the principle of intoxication with beauty, on the other hand, abolishes all distinctions and boundaries, restoring the original elemental unity. On the one hand, there is present a movement of individuation, differentiation of shapes, boundaries, lines, which results in the emergence of a rich, internally differentiated world of voices, states, nuances and layers. This can lead to the risk that emerging boundaries and limits separate elements from each other, set them against each other, and the pursuit of structural ordering could turn into stasis, blocking transformation and movement. Harmony and beauty, if they are not to fossilise, must renew and move as they are born out of a tension towards their opposite - towards ugliness and disharmony. Against this Apollonian line of individuation, then, stands the great gesture of rejecting all differences and restoring the original unity. Intoxication eliminates differences, releasing vital resources. And so, the measure and contours need to be reestablished, made transparent, calmed down, thanks to which the work acquires depth and articulation, the composition lives on several levels and layers. This polarity and the search for its unity and balance is, perhaps more than with anyone else, the starting point and the key to understanding a functioning Rachmaninovian aesthetic. And that is why a clear-eyed mind, a pure and unencumbered outlook, free from the accretions of experienced convention, is vital. Just as we do with new works that we see for the very first time and have no customary right to them.
From an interpretive point of view, if we want to bring this dimension to life, it is essential to see it first - to see into the musical texture (! himself saying: "it is necessary to dismantle every bolt, every cog, so that everything can then be pieced together."2), to explore its peculiar "polyrhythmia" and polyphony, with great rigor for purity and precision, and then to let go little by little, exposing the structure to emotional trembling. There is no need to worry about the emotion; the emotional relief is amplified, gains nobility, precisely through such work. Far from being revelatory, this interpretive approach to Rachmaninoff is very little used. Why does the author himself, who takes so much "liberty" in interpreting other composer’s works and bringing their aesthetics to the edge of the possible, play his own stuff - the most refined and moving sections - with extreme restraint, even chastity, highly sophisticatedly, downright antisentimentally? It is a question that leads to one of the most fundamental moments in Rachmaninoff's world.
2 NEŽDANOVA, Antonina: About Rachmaninoff, in: Remembering Rachmaninoff 2, Moscow 1957, p. 63.
