Sergei Rachmaninov

This song is the penultimate of the 12 that constitute Rachmaninov's Op. 14 set. The first, I Wait for Thee, was written in 1894, but all of the others came two years later, around the time the composer was working on his Symphony No. 1, a piece whose disastrous premiere derailed his promising career for the next four years. Spring waters (also commonly translated as Spring torrents) is one of Rachmaninov's more popular songs, and has been quite widely performed in Russia in the century or so since its appearance. The Feodor Tyutchyev text that Rachmaninov set here enthusiastically proclaims the arrival of spring. The composer's music deftly matches that enthusiasm both in the vivacious, impassioned vocal line and in the piano accompaniment, which often comes in torrents as if depicting waves or cascades of falling water. While Rachmaninov may frequently have been content to wallow in gloomy or dark music, here he emotionally moves to the opposite plane. The atmosphere throughout is sunlit and ecstatic, as if the spring season heralded in the text will end all woes. This masterful gem typically has a duration of two minutes.