The exordial piece of Rachmaninoff's Six moments musicaux collection, Andantino (1896), is the longest of the set and epitomizes the form of a nocturne sui generis. It features a long melody, as emblematic in Rachmaninoff's modus operandi, full of syncopes, which is varied throughout the score in exceptionally brilliant and elegant manners. The first section introduces the main melodic material, in which clear Schubertian réminiscences are manifested, for example by observing the role that rests play in separating the variatio at 1:11. A restatement of the melody with chromatic counterpoint ensues. The second section, characterized by an unusual 7/4 time signature in the relative key of g-flat-major, contains interesting harmony development at 2:28, where the right-hand chords are transposed up a minor third, in almost dorian echoes, modulating back to the g-flat-maj key. A cadenza separates this section from the third melodic variation of the main theme, which is indubitably the most eminent: it starts from a pianissimo, texturally dense figuration, an undisturbed motu perpetuum, with a strict unrelenting rhythm in the left hand, that carries the music tensely and agitatedly, to reach a most powerful, pathétique (in the etymological sense of the word) climax around 4:21. Another long Schubertian rest precedes the épilogue, fourth and final restatement of the theme, distinguished by marked, arpeggiated chords, ending in a grimly and dark, almost tragic and exausted demeanor. I shall be fully content and satisfied, were I able to convey even the slightest tip of the iceberg of the Composer's emotions in this very deep, somewhat mysterious and melancholic piece ^_^.
