- Rachmaninov’s symphonic poem, The Rock (Fantasy for Orchestra), was written in 1893, when the composer was 20 years old.
- Rachmaninov also created an arrangement for four hands that same year.
- Rachmaninov dedicated the work to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.1
- There are two literary inspirations for the symphonic poem:
- Rachmaninov derived the work’s title from the following couplet by Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov:
- The golden cloud slept through the night
Upon the breast of the giant-rock
- The golden cloud slept through the night
- The composer also noted the inspiration of Anton Chekhov‘s short story, “On the Road”:
- “In the story, set on Christmas Eve amid a howling blizzard, a young girl and an old man meet at an overnight roadside inn. The man laments the failures of his life. Although the girl is overcome with pity, she continues on her journey.”2
- Rachmaninov derived the work’s title from the following couplet by Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov:
Sources
- “The Rock, Op.7 (Rachmaninoff, Sergei),” IMSLP, accessed February 19, 2025, https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Rock%2C_Op.7_(Rachmaninoff%2C_Sergei).
- Timothy Judd, “Rachmaninov’s ‘The Rock’: An Homage to the Romantic Tone Poem,” The Listener’s Club (2022), accessed February 19, 2025, https://thelistenersclub.com/2022/03/23/rachmaninovs-the-rock-an-homage-to-the-romantic-tone-poem/.
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