Ex. 8-13: 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.

After the song became well known, something strange began to happen. From around 1908, wherever Rachmaninoff gave a concert, an anonymous admirer had white lilacs delivered to the stage or his dressing room. The notes that came with them were always signed only "White Lilac," and for years he had no idea who she was. She revealed herself only in 1918, after Rachmaninoff had already left Russia: a devoted admirer named Fekla Rousseau. She had kept hoping he would one day return to play in Russia; once it was clear he never would, the lilacs finally stopped.

From the album Сирень (Lilacs) by Islama Abdullayeva and Fəqan Həsənli (2024)
Spotify

Also on the album Dissonance by Asmik Grigorian and Lukas Geniušas (2022)
Spotify