Rachmaninoff, The Tsar
and the Steinway
There are times that I go astray from Oceanside to become enchanted by an extraordinary event. Such was the night of August 27, 2024. The Balboa Theater in San Diego presented a Musical Story told and preformed by Hershey Felder.
Walking into the great auditorium of the Balboa Theater, there is was. The Steinway centered on the stage waiting. Light was dim, and gloriously moody. The setting of a garden, dreamlike in shades of blues and greens. The House in the background was Rachmaninoff's in Beverly Hills California. The mood is set. It is one of my greatest loves, this music of Rachmaninoff.
Childhood memories came flooding back as I strove to master the Prelude in C♯ Minor. As a teenager, the music filled the missing places in my life as I imagine that composing this had a profound catharsis on Rachmaninoff when he was only 19 years old.
Background. This work was one of the first the 19 year old Rachmaninoff composed as a "Free Artist", after he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory on 29 May 1892. He performed this new work for the first time at one of the concerts of the Moscow Electrical Exhibition on 26 September 1892.*
Just before the Play began, a smokey fog enveloped the stage. Adding to the mystery of what was about to happen, the air of expectation was felt by us all. Then, Hershey Felder strode into this mysterious garden and his voice rang out. Still we were, breathless in our convocation of expectation. Seated on a garden bench, Rachmaninoff told his story. One of the heartbreak of His Russia, and the longing of his life's purpose to tell the story of the Bells of Russia.
Enter the dream, the Tsar, in the person of Jonathan Silverstri. Magnificent in his royal uniform, he confronted Rachmaninoff in his ranting about his music and the misfortunes of his music not being played in Russia. The interaction between the two men was fractious at times, but in the end, each was responsive to the other and the understanding of needs of each other.
The Steinway is the third party to this historical play. The sorrow deep tones of bass , the mid-range tones is the modulating armature, and the ethereal high strings singing the songs of life, The Steinway is the glue, that holds the entire proceedings together...for me, I was left without words for the rest of the play. Somehow, the music of Rachmaninoff starts in the mid-range of my physical self, and electrical sparks works their way up to my brain in recognition. I am his. My hands can no longer play his music, but my heart will play along side of any performer. The Steinway gives its song to us, and it is the crucible of the parts and the many facets of the Play...
A Wondrous night, full or the greatest of music, a glorious setting for performance, giving us a historical imagining, and the compounded sense of a communal blending of people coming together for an event which had the effect of, out of many we were one, for one magical moment in time...
* Wiki
