Suite No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)

Suite No. 2, Op. 17, is a composition for two pianos by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

This work was composed in Italy in the first months of 1901, and like the famous second piano concerto, Op.18, it confirms the comeback of the creativity of the composer after four years of silence since the flop of his first symphony. The Suite was first performed on November 24, 1901, by the composer and his cousin Alexander Siloti.

In contrast to the First Suite for two pianos, the work is not based on literature, and the form tends to approach the traditional suite.^[1] The movements are:

I. Introduction (Alla marcia, in C major)
II. Valse (Presto, in G major)
III. Romance (Andantino, in A flat major)
IV. Tarantelle (Presto, in C minor)

In Los Angeles in the early 1940s, just before Rachmaninoff died, he and Vladimir Horowitz were at a party and played the piece, the first and only time they ever did.^[2]

References

^ Tranchefort, François-Rene (1987). Guide de la musique de piano et de clavecin. Fayard.
^ Bertensson, Sergei; Leyda, Jay (1956). Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33817-4.