"Memory"

One is always at home in one's past... (V. Nabokov)

The memory of an unspoken feeling, the memory of youth and carefree fun, the memory of your

native places that you can never return to - something that is forever lost remains only in our

hearts and in our memory. Something that is difficult to convey in words, you can try to convey

with music.

The fantasy in F minor is dedicated to Caroline Esterhazy, Schubert's student, with whom he was

in love. Without giving the slightest sign that could reveal his feelings, he continued to teach the

girl music regularly. It was not a matter of natural timidity, but of social conventions: his status as

a poor hired composer left no hope not only for reciprocity on her part, but also for the very right

to declare his love, apart from the phrase once that all his works were actually dedicated to her.

In 1828, from January to March, Schubert composed a Fantasy in f minor in four hands. He sent a

copy of the sheet music to Caroline by mail, enclosing a letter in which he spoke about his

feelings and that he was dedicating this piece to her.

It seems especially touching that he dedicated to Caroline not a symphony or a sonata, not a

duet with a violin, but a four-handed work. The participants of such an intimate ensemble sit

closest to each other – they feel each other with their elbows, feel their breath.

Nothing is known about the reaction of Esterhazy's daughter – the reply letter (if there was one

at all) has not been preserved. But all her life she kept Schubert's music and memory of him.

“Souvenirs” is a suite of 6 dances, homage to the "light music" of the early 20th century. Music

that was originally intended for playing at home in a friendly company and written by Samuel

Barber with great skill, invention and nostalgia for the "roaring twenties". He himself wrote about

his suite: "... the suite consists of a waltz, schottische, pas de deux, two step, hesitation tango,

and gallop. One might imagine a divertissement in a setting of the Palm Court of the Hotel Plaza

in New York, the year about 1914, epoch of the first tangos; Souvenirs, remembered with

affection, not in irony or with tongue in cheek, but in amused tenderness».

Symphonic dances were created by Rachmaninoff at a very difficult time, at a new turning point

in his life. In 1939, the Second World War began. Ten days before the beginning of the war, theRachmaninovs managed to leave Europe.

The composer spent the summer of 1940 not far from New York. Here, overcome by thoughts of

his daughter, who remained in German-occupied Paris, about the fate of Europe, about the

future, he created his last symphonic composition with great effort, in an incredibly short time,

which he initially called Fantastic Dances, and later Symphonic Dances.

Full of references to his own works and to Russian church hymns this composition seems to sum

up Rachmaninov's entire life.