Sergei RAKHMANINOV (1873-1943): Vocalise (1912)
Although a great number of composers have written Vocalises as exercises for the voice, Rakhmaninov's was always intended for performance, not only as a study aid. At the end of a set of fourteen songs, with texts varying from Pushkin to Rakhmaninov's contemporary symbolist poets, this wordless finale was conceived for the limpid, clear tone of one of Rachmaninov's favourite singers, Antonina Nezhdanova, the belle of the Bolshoi opera at the time.
The Vocalise's seemingly endless melody and its typically-Russian, sinking, chromatically-emotive harmony rapidly made it popular, inspiring Rakhmaninov to rework it for a variety of performance forces: soloist and orchestra, orchestra alone, solo instrument and piano. Many other arrangers have since reworked it for combinations of instruments ranging from the appropriate to the absurd. The version heard today gives the melody line to the flute and the secondary obbligato line to the bassoon, weaving around each other and passing the gentle forwards motion between them, with sonorous reflections in the piano.
