Classical Goes Full Hollywood at Rachmaninoff in Los Angeles

By Mi Ran Choi
Celebrated Cellist & Director of Classical Arts, Hollywoodland News

For Whom The Bells Toll: Intersections in Classical Music and Pop Culture

The preambular bell-tolls. The lush romanticism that charges both the soloist and the orchestra alike.  This summer, for two nights at the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Philharmonic celebrated Rachmaninoff in Los Angeles with conductor Daniel Harding and pianist Daniil Trifonov.

For two nights this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Philharmonic featured Rachmaninoff’s beloved works together with conductor Daniel Harding and pianist Daniil Trifonov. 

Where Might I Have Heard This Name Before?

Casual listeners and even musical cognoscenti alike might be surprised to learn the expansive extent to which Rachmaninoff’s creativity influenced subsequent art. 

The Seven Year Itch (2/5) Movie CLIP – Good Old Rachmaninoff (1955) HD

Or perhaps you’re a fan of Frank Sinatra and vintage vocal jazz? No problem, he also finds inspiration from the same concerto, though this time from its third movement:

Full Moon And Empty Arms (78 rpm Version)

Point being – Rachmaninoff’s impact in the creative arts has lasted the test of time and is still greatly admired today. Rather than just me saying this, I urge you to explore how many other artists after him have found enough resonance in his art to adopt it in their work. This can range from interpreting one’s listening experience into prose, or sampling a fragment of a longer work and pairing it with ambient noise and paper crackling to make a new contribution to the Lo-Fi genre of pop music. 

Perhaps this can be your gateway into investigating the intersections among (classical) music and pop culture, social movements, philosophy, history, spirituality… any other possible category we have fragmented our collective human experience into for sake of easy understanding. 

From Moscow and Ivanovka to Beverly Hills

The only thing that might have had a greater influence, concerning LA and Hollywood, is his physical presence together with fellow Russian émigrés during the first half of the 1900s.

Following Rachmaninoff’s formative years at both the St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories, as well as his nomadic life through various European cities and NYC, he eventually settled in none other than our very own Beverly Hills – a stone’s throw away from the Westwood UCLA campus.

Prior to his final move, he had toured through major cities in the US primarily as a conductor and concert pianist, performing his own works and those of other composers. His career as a performing pianist brought him to perform numerous times at the Hollywood Bowl, which he adored for its atmosphere.

This move placed him in close proximity with other musicians of Russian descent – namely pianist Vladimir Horowitz and composer Igor Stravinsky*. Had he settled a decade earlier, he may have crossed paths more here with fellow composer George Gershwin, who also settled in the area but passed in 1937. 

Angeleno readers, it may be fun to see if you may already know of some of these landmarks yourself!

*A wholesome aside on the latter: Story goes, the Stravinskys invited the Rachmaninoffs to dinner at the former’s home. Introverted and aware of the stark difference in their musical sensibilities, Mr. Rachmaninoff appeared at the Stravinskys’ doorstep, looming over the shorter Stravinsky, and took out a jar of honey from his coat pocket as a peace offering – having heard that Mr. Stravinsky loved honey. Friendship acquired.

Let’s Get Back to Our Sheep**: Concerto No. 2 in c minor, Op. 18

** A literal translation of the Russian figure of speech, “Вернёмся к нашим баранам”

A full presence gripped the stage in silence as the audience hurriedly silenced their conversations, phones, and plate clinking in darkness. Soloist Daniil Trifonov opened the concerto with its famed bell-toll chords, inspired by Russian Orthodox bells, before the tutti orchestra entered with a lush, melismatic melody, embellishing the movement’s tonic note, awash with ardent romanticism. 

The work was part of a rebirth of Rachmaninoff’s musical spirit from a period of deep depression following a disastrous premiere of his First Symphony. To listen to his tenacious spirit embodied in these three interconnected movements, no, to experience his renewed intensity and conviction as interpreted by this phenomenal group of musicians inspired a sort of rebirth in myself. 

Everything – from the pushing towards and pulling away from resolving harmonic tension, to the tender manner in which Trifonov drew out warmth and crystalline clarity on the Steinway concert grand piano – was a sight to behold. The world-class pianist’s stage presence was strong, but inviting rather than intimidating to the audience and ensemble alike. I was particularly gripped by how he drew physically close to the keyboard for much of the work, as though his vision of the work demanded the surgical attention of a fine clock maker. 

While a concerto is meant to feature the technical prowess of a soloist, Rachmaninoff wrote in such a way that the piano’s presence organically interweaves with the orchestra’s textures and voices. On occasion, a lone french horn or clarinet emerged from the textures with statements of longing that would find resonance in response from either the piano or another voice in the orchestra. 

Harding’s simultaneous gestures to the orchestra and tight communication with Trifonov’s musical nuances were exactly what the music called for: exacting precision, direction of a clear musical intention, and the ability to render an audience simply breathless – leaning at the edges of their seats to savor the natural decays of every note. 

Musical Vindication: Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony

The only note I found I had written for this piece that wasn’t crossed out was, and I quote, “Goddamn.” 

Don’t get me wrong, I have always been immensely enamored by the piano concerto that preceded Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, ever since I first heard it live with the LA Phil in high school back in 2013.

Now, I am not usually one to give in to waterworks, whether in movies and concerts, nor in most other settings. It has been a gag in some friend groups, and some have even taken up the challenge to make me crack.

But my God… the way in which Harding and the LA Phil gradually built the reticent first statements from the lower strings into the deeply aching yearning of the symphony’s third movement, and closed the overall testament out as tenderly as it began… 

I had attended this concert with HLN’s Ioana, who was also awestruck by this concert overall, but had turned to her left to find me weeping by the third movement. It was difficult to not empathize with the force-of-nature spirit Rachmaninoff had infused in this piece. You simply need to listen for yourself, preferably live!

Further Intersections: Music and Activism

Beyond samplings of standard classical music repertoire in fresh beats and inclusion of such works in other media lies a bigger intersection: music and social advocacy or activism. 

Culture, whether in the modern pop scene or as observed in history, is inextricably linked to an era’s zeitgeist. Arguments have been made towards enjoying art for art’s sake, or towards cautioning against divorcing the art from the artist, and everything in between. Such discourse has been ever present, but have intensified with #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and decolonization movements and including sticking points such as:

• Should we still respect the work of Richard Wagner and Carl Ruggles in spite of their vehement anti-Semitism and racism respectively? Or are they cancelled?
• Or should we include disclaimers in studying the great conductors of the past, namely Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan, both of whom had ties to the Nazi Party?
• Why did academia embrace a eurocentric and at times reactionary approach to musicology and repertoire choice for students? (This is phrased in the past tense but trust me, this essence perseveres in academia today.)
• Why do leading musical establishments and ensembles stick to the eurocentric fan favorites, while providing relatively scant support for contemporary composers – especially BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and neurodiverse artists?
• Should music classes incorporate critical race theory’s ripple effects on culture, or should such classes stick to learning and playing pieces?
• Is it wrong for calls for scores to discriminate based on applicant gender identity, sexual orientation, or race?
• And perhaps relevant to this concert, is it right to program music from or related to a country currently committing acts of unspeakable cruelty and violence (Russia)? Is it right to dismiss and replace artists who express their vocal support for such a country?**
  **By mentioning this, I do want to clarify, Daniil Trifonov has previously commented that “Every war is a tragedy.”

From K-12 schools that incorporate music instruction to planning committees of world class musical ensembles, variants of these questions cross the minds of those who program concerts, prepare content for community engagement events, and prepare learning curricula, or maybe all of the above. As a music educator, I regularly reflect on these questions and need to ask myself – in the interest of my students’ growth and nurturing their curiosity, what is the right course of action? What is the stance to take?

Continuing on the last point, given the current state of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, and factoring in historical injustices and international crimes Russia has committed towards Ukraine, pro-Putin musicians have been replaced in favor of others, and Russian artists are in a precarious position to openly voice their standing with dire consequences on either end. Programming of Russian composers has been met with pro-Ukrainian protest at the outbreak of war, though such activity has waned in frequency in the last year. One can argue that Rachmaninoff’s experience and memories of Russia isn’t what Russia is today, and that he left his motherland to escape the revolution and all it entailed, so he should be exempt from this scrutiny. And together with this argument, not all Russians support the war and to assume so is unfair to those doing what they can there to protest and push for change. 

All this to say, “right” and “wrong” will inevitably differ from person to person within reason, as will “fact” vs. “opinion,” or any other dichotomy you can think up, pending your social circle, your local community, and your curated content feeds. By using such examples, I don’t intend to create further division or cut ties, nor do I claim to have the right answers. Far from it. I’m also not people-pleasing by remaining neutral in this presentation. While I have my own views on this matter, I am intentionally leaving them out to instead encourage civil discourse. Dialogues. Balance.

As a music educator teaching in community program settings, these questions are always racing through my mind in addition to what I ought to do to best serve my students’ growth and curiosity, and also how to encourage them to draw from their lived experiences, knowledge, and critical thinking. Sometimes these (at times temporary) answers may come from recognizing my biases and committing to research, and sometimes these answers can come from what I sense is intuitively, morally correct. No one approach helps to work towards these answers – there almost always needs to be a balancing act among receiving by way of reading or listening, reflecting, discussing, and holding space for emotions or questions as they come. 

One does not have to be a teacher to reflect on implicit biases, on the way one experiences art and culture, and most importantly, how all of this affects oneself and others around them in the grander scheme. In my humble opinion, how we view the intersection of music and (pop) culture ought to be informed by such community discussion, active listening, and reflection – we can’t simply isolate these connections to the ideal depictions of the past. To do so here would be to undermine the reason Hollywoodland News exists: to retell Hollywood’s story one truth at a time.