Ex. 8-17: Lilacs

No. 5 of Rachmaninoff's 12 Romances (Op. 21), composed in April 1902 — the same month he married his cousin Natalia Satina. The poem, by Ekaterina Beketova, describes someone walking at dawn through grass still wet with dew, to the lilac bushes, to find there a single, quiet happiness. The mood is unusually bright and gentle for Rachmaninoff.

He had spent years in a depression after his First Symphony failed at its 1897 premiere, and had regained his confidence only recently, with his Piano Concerto No. 2. Of the twelve songs in Op. 21, "Lilacs" was the only one he later arranged for solo piano, in 1914, and he often played that version as an encore. Lilacs and roses grew over the gate of his country estate, Ivanovka, where he spent his happiest summers and which he lost for good when he left Russia after the Revolution.

For years an unknown admirer sent him white lilac. It began before 1906, when a bush of white lilac was handed up to the stage at one of his concerts. From then on lilac came to every concert he gave in Russia, and to his home on holidays, always without a note. The family called her "White Lilac." Later a musician who knew her told him her name, Fekla Rousseau. She was a widowed teacher, and his music had helped her through a dark time. He thanked her in a letter, and they wrote to each other for several years, but they never met. A pupil of his, who later became her friend, wrote that the lilac had nothing to do with this song.

From the album Сирень (Lilacs) by Islama Abdullayeva and Fəqan Həsənli (2024)
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Also on the album Dissonance by Asmik Grigorian and Lukas Geniušas (2022)
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