Suite No. 1 (Rachmaninoff)

Suite No. 1 in G Minor (or Fantaisie-tableaux), Op. 5, is a work for two pianos by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Written in the summer of 1893 at the Lysikof estate in Lebeden, Kharkov, it was initially titled Fantaisie-tableaux because Rachmaninoff intended it, as he explained in a letter to his cousin Sofia Satin, to consist "of a series of musical pictures." (While François-René Tranchefort asserts that the music illustrates four extracts of poems, written by Mikhail Lermontov, Lord Byron, Fyodor Tyutchev and Aleksey Khomyakov, Rachmaninoff biographer Max Harrison points out that, although the poems do "convey something of the emotional tone of the music," the suite itself is not programmatic.) Dedicated to Tchaikovsky, the work was premiered on November 30, 1893, by Rachmaninoff himself and Pavel Pabst, in Moscow. Its four movements are:

1. Barcarolle. Allegretto, in G minor.
2. La nuit... L'amour... Adagio sostenuto, in D major. (The night...the love...)
3. Les Larmes. Largo di molto, in G minor. (The Tears)
4. Pâques. Allegro maestoso, in G minor. (Easter)

Rachmaninoff composed a second suite for two pianos in 1901.

The Suite No. 1 was arranged for piano and orchestra by Rebekah Harkness. A 1968 recording by Jorge Mester and the London Philharmonic Orchestra was released in 1994 on Citadel Records.

External links

• Suite No. 1 for two pianos: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project