When a Legend plays Rachmaninoff: Gilels plays Vocalise

Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, particularly in Alan Richardson's masterful piano transcription, is a piece that demands not just technical proficiency, but profound musical sensitivity. It is a journey from the human voice to the soul of the piano.


⭐️Historical Context and Significance: The Original Masterpiece: Op. 34, No. 14


Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) composed his Fourteen Songs, Op. 34, between 1912 and 1915. The final song, No. 14, is the celebrated Vocalise. A "vocalise" is a wordless vocal melody, sung on a single vowel (typically "ah"), designed to develop vocal technique, beauty of tone, and legato phrasing. Rachmaninoff, however, elevated this technical exercise into a piece of breathtaking, melancholic beauty.

He dedicated the work to the soprano Antonina Nezhdanova, who, upon seeing the piece, reportedly asked with some dismay, "What words am I to sing?" Rachmaninoff's reply was simple: "Why use words, when you are able to express everything that is in your heart and soul so much better with your voice?" This captures the essence of the piece: it is pure, unadulterated emotion, a sigh of the Russian soul that transcends language.

The melody is characteristic of Rachmaninoff's late Romantic style: a long, arching, almost "endless" melodic line, underpinned by rich, chromatic harmonies. It is imbued with a sense of toska (тоска), a Russian word with no perfect English equivalent, encompassing a deep spiritual anguish, a longing for something unattainable, and a profound, aching nostalgia.


⭐️The Art of Transcription: Alan Richardson's Vision

The tradition of transcribing vocal and orchestral works for solo piano has a long and noble history, with figures like Franz Liszt. Alan Richardson (1904-1978), a British pianist and composer, created what is arguably the most famous and pianistically satisfying transcription of the Vocalise. His arrangement is not a mere note-for-note transfer. Instead, Richardson re-imagines the piece for the piano, translating the soprano's sustained line and the orchestral or piano accompaniment into a cohesive, idiomatic keyboard texture. He masterfully uses the piano's full resonant capacity to evoke the original's atmosphere.


⭐️The Role of the Transcriptionist


It is also helpful to consider the nature of transcription itself, it is not a mere transfer, but a re-interpretation. The arranger must grasp the soul of the original and translate it into the language of his own instrument, using its unique tonal possibilities.

Our task is to perform Richardson's "re-interpretation," using the piano's unique ability to control harmony, resonance, and embody the soul of Rachmaninoff's vocal line.

To fully understand this piece, listen to both its original vocal version and transcribed forms.