Friday: UT School of Music Honors the 80th Anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s Last Concert

BY ALAN SHERROD

University of Tennessee School of Music: “Rachmaninoff Remembered”
UT Symphony Orchestra, UT Concert Choir, Pianist Chih-Long Hu, Guest Victor Yampolsky
James R. Cox Auditorium, Alumni Memorial Building on the UT Campus
Friday, February 17, 7:30 PM
FREE

Much like every day for the duration of World War II, the news headlines on February 17, 1943, were dominated by reports from the European battlefields, followed up with stories of home-front deprivations and the regular urgings to conserve raw materials. Far from those battlefields, though, life went on. On that Wednesday, some Knoxvillians may have been planning a musical evening out, at last getting the chance to hear in recital at the University of Tennessee, the famous Russian pianist and composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Having had to cancel a recital date in Knoxville once before, Rachmaninoff was determined not to disappoint on this occasion. The recital at UT’s Alumni Memorial Auditorium/Gymnasium happened as planned, although some audience members reported that Rachmaninoff did not appear well. Despite this, first hand accounts have said that his playing was as spectacular as expected.

On a piano performance tour that began in the fall of 1942, Rachmaninoff had not been told that his declining physical condition was due to cancer. That recital would turn out to be a significant one—it would be the last concert given by the famous musician, thereby giving Knoxville an unfortunate distinction. Unable to continue the tour that included nine recitals, including one in New Orleans the following week, Rachmaninoff and his wife, Natalia, headed back to their Los Angeles home. He would die there a month later on March 28. Sadly, the Rachmaninoffs had proudly announced on February 1 that they had become United States citizens.

“Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert”, Victor Bokarov, World’s Fair Park – Photo: Alan Sherrod

Eighty years after that fateful last performance and in the 150th anniversary year of Rachmaninoff’s birth, the UT School of Music is honoring the occasion with a concert, “Rachmaninoff Remembered,” on Friday evening, February 17, in the same virtual space as the 1943 recital, the James R. Cox Auditorium in the Alumni Memorial Building. The concert will feature the UT Symphony Orchestra, the UT Concert Choir, pianist and UT faculty member Chih-Long Hu, and guest conductor Victor Yampolsky.

Director of Orchestras for the School of Music, James Fellenbaum, explained the desire to involve as many student groups as possible in the concert. “One of the ways we did that,” Fellenbaum says, “was to invite Khyle Wooten, director of the Concert Choir, to create a four-part arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s wordless “Vocalise” for the choir, a different take on that historical piece—and a different sort of experience for the Concert Choir.”

That special arrangement of the “Vocalise,” conducted by Wooten, will be followed on the concert by the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. Pianist Chih-Long Hu will perform with the orchestra under the direction of Fellenbaum.

For the second half of the concert, the orchestra will turn to Rachmaninoff’s last major composition, Symphonic Dances, an orchestral suite in three movements that seems to sum up the composer’s life and career. Adding interesting connections to the occasion, Fellenbaum, now in his 20th year as UTSOM Director of Orchestras, has invited the noted Russian violinist and conductor, Victor Yampolsky, to guest conduct the orchestra in Symphonic Dances. Yampolsky was Fellenbaum’s conducting mentor from his graduate school training days at Northwestern University.

“What better way to celebrate Rachmaninoff,” Fellenbaum explains, “than to have this Russian violinist and conductor born in Moscow—a violinist with the Boston Symphony for many years, a musician steeped in Russian musical literature—guest conduct on this notable occasion. I wanted to provide that experience for the students at UT. Along the way, I’ll be narrating the concert and talking about the historical importance of Rachmaninoff as a pianist and composer, and of the February 17, 1943 recital.”