All but the first of these dozen songs were composed in 1896, two years after the initial item, "I await you." By the time the composer completed the set, he was finding the vocal idiom more to his liking, though his style was still evolving in all genres. This was his third song collection and probably the best to date.

The aforementioned opening number, on texts by Maria Davidova, offers a yearning melody to express the feelings of an anxious woman awaiting her lover. The piano accompaniment is mostly gentle and sensitive, but in the closing moments becomes quite powerful, perhaps too much so, thereby disclosing the composer's still somewhat immature talents. "Small Island," written on Konstantin Balmont texts, comes next. The melody is tranquil and flowing, and the mood remains serene throughout to depict the scenes of nature in the text.

The third song is "How few the joys," which sets a poem by Afanasy Fet about the agonies of lost love. Not surprisingly, the music has a dark character. "I was with her" expresses the Alexei Koltsov text about mutual love and faithfulness with passionate, exciting vocal writing, underpinned by many colorful arpeggios from the piano accompaniment. "These Summer Nights," using texts by Daniil Rathaus, expresses restive feelings aroused by the mood of the summer night. The piano accompaniment deftly modulates to underscore the uncertainty of the emotions.

The next two songs are on texts by Tolstoy. The first, "You are so loved by all," offers both spoken and musical roles for the voice, with soft piano accompaniment. The mood is sad throughout, the Tolstoy texts dealing with grief. The second of the pair is "Do not believe me, friend," which expresses the feelings of reaffirmation of love for someone apparently neglected. The mood is cheerful and a bit carefree, and the accompaniment deftly shaped and brilliant at the close.

"Oh, do not grieve," a setting of Alexei Apukhtin words, enacts a woman's caring and consoling abilities with a touching melody, that is beautifully elegiac in character. The ensuing pair of songs are on texts by Nikolai Minsky. "She is as beautiful as midday" and "In my soul" share a certain exotic quality in their thematic material and writing, and both songs deal with hopeless feelings owing to failure in love. "Spring Torrents" is one of Rachmaninov's most popular songs, especially in Russia. Using texts from Feodor Tyutchev that herald the onset of spring, it features a buoyant, happy theme, supported by fleet and colorful passages from the piano. The last song here is "It is time," on texts by Semyon Nadson. This is a rousing and powerful piece to close out the set, with potent accompaniment and a text that is an entreaty to a prophet to aid the people in a desperate time.

© Robert Cummings, All Music Guide

11.Spring Waters

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.

© All Music Guide