The work is fully representative of the composer's later style with its curious, shifting harmonies, the almost Prokofiev-like grotesquerie of the outer movements and the focus on individual instrumental tone colors throughout (highlighted by his use of an alto saxophone in the opening dance). The opening three-note motif, introduced quietly but soon reinforced by heavily staccato chords and responsible for much of the movement's rhythmic vitality, is reminiscent of the Queen of Shemakha's theme in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel, the only music by another composer that he had taken out of Russia with him in 1917.
Date of composition | 1940 in New York, NY, United States |
Premiered | 1941, January 7th |
Type | Symphonic Dance |
Catalogue | Op. 45 |
Approx. duration | 40 minutes |
Instruments | Orchestra |
In listings |
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Famous Works
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Autotranslations beta |
Sergueï Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 Sergej Vasil'evič Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 Sergei Wassiljewitsch Rachmaninow: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 |