Polka de V.R. (Polka de W. R.)

1. 0:00
   Entry of the polka tune

   A few bars of semiquavers slow down and get softer before the tune enters at pp. The left hand alternates a bass note with a chord, the oom-pah of the polka. Above it, the right hand plays small triplets between the melody notes.

2. 0:26
   Behr’s polka, arranged 1911

   Vasily Rachmaninoff liked to play this tune, and his son gave the arrangement his father’s initials. The melody is Franz Behr’s Lachtäubchen, a Scherzpolka, Op. 303, also known as La rieuse. Rachmaninoff moved it from F to A♭ major and dedicated his 1911 version to Leopold Godowsky.

3. 1:18
   Meno mosso episode

   Meno mosso slows the dance after the staccato chords. A slurred melody moves over left-hand chords. A tempo restores the pace, and a second Meno mosso slows it again.

4. 1:45
   Edison recordings, April 1919

   In April 1919 Rachmaninoff, newly arrived in America and in need of money, agreed to record for Edison. Edison wanted ten sides at once, before any contract was signed, and issued all three takes of each. The RCA booklet to the reissue describes the sound as “distant and disappointing”.

5. 2:12
   Change to four sharps

   At the double bar the key signature changes from four flats to four sharps. The marking is Tempo precedente, with scherzando written above the first chord. Accented chords and sixteenth-note figures follow in both hands.

6. 2:36
   Return of the main theme, A♭ major

   A♭ major returns at Tempo I. Rachmaninoff adds a countermelody of his own to Behr’s tune, while the bass keeps the same accompaniment pattern as before.

7. 3:54
   Closing bars, Meno mosso

   A pp run rises through the upper register. Meno mosso and a ritardando slow the final bars, and the piece ends on a soft chord under a fermata.

Joins

1. 1:02
   Short chords in both hands

   At Poco più mosso the tempo quickens. In A♭ major both hands play short, accented chords. The dynamic starts at mf and rises through f to ff. Rests separate the pairs of chords, and the bass continues to leap.

2. 1:18
   Descending run into Meno mosso

   A descending right-hand figure and a ritardando lead away from the ff chords. At Meno mosso the right hand plays a slurred melody above moving inner notes and a held left-hand chord, and the marking drops to mf.

3. 2:12
   Veloce run leads to four sharps

   Poco a poco rallentando slows the melody. A run marked veloce begins pp, grows louder and descends, and the left hand stops beneath its last notes. At the double bar the key signature changes to four sharps. Tempo precedente restores the earlier tempo, and scherzando is written above the melody.

4. 2:36
   Return to four flats and Tempo I

   At the end of the four-sharp passage the key signature changes back to four flats. The right hand plays forte sextuplets above broken chords in the left hand, and a ritardando leads into Tempo I. The A♭ major tune returns at p with a second melodic line beside it.

5. 3:54
   Meno mosso and the final chord

   A long pp run rises across the keyboard before Meno mosso. The left hand holds a low octave and the right-hand line slows through a ritardando. A final high chord at pp, under a fermata, ends the piece in A♭ major.