1. Non allegro
2. Andante con moto. Tempo di valse
3. Lento assai – Allegro vivace 

This is Rachmaninoff’s last major composition, completed in 1940. The Symphonic Dances were dedicated to Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra who gave the premiere on 3 January 1941. Though the two-piano version was finished first (in August 1940), its earliest known performance not given until August 1942 at a private event in Beverly Hills, California, when it was reportedly played by Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz. The original title was ‘Fantastic Dances’ with the movements called ‘Noon’, ‘Twilight’ and ‘Midnight’. Rachmaninoff decided to scrap these programmatic titles, and to emphasise the symphonic stature of the music was surely correct: this is powerful, imposing music which the Rachmaninoff authority Geoffrey Norris described as ‘a symphony in all but name.’ The opening of the first dance has a kind of stark energy that develops an impressive head of 

steam. A more reflective central section leads to a reprise of the opening, but this then dissolves into a beautiful coda where Rachmaninoff introduces a quotation of the main theme from his First Symphony: a work that had famously failed at its premiere but in which he still (rightly) had faith. This theme has hints of Orthodox church music – an influence to which the composer returns later in the work. The second movement is a beguiling and harmonically ambiguous waltz. While much of the finale dazzles with brilliant colour in its outer sections (with a lyrical interlude at its heart), it also includes prominent references to the Dies irae plainchant and a reworking of music from Rachmaninoff’s own All-Night Vigil. At the start of the thrilling coda, Rachmaninoff wrote on the orchestral version ‘Alleluia’, and it’s likely he intended this close to serve as a kind of joyous valediction. 

© Nigel Simeone 2026