The Études-tableaux ("study pictures") are two sets of piano études composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, arranged under opus numbers 33 and 39.

These sets were supposed to be "picture pieces", though Rachmaninoff did not disclose what each piece suggests, stating, "I don't believe in the artist that discloses too much of his images. Let them paint for themselves what it most suggests."

Opus 33
The Op. 33 etudes were originally meant to comprise nine etudes when Rachmaninoff wrote them at Ivanovka. The composer decided to publish only six of them in 1911. Numbers three and five were published posthumously and are often inserted among the six etudes; number four was transferred to Op. 39, where it appears as number six of that set. (As a consequence, many recordings omit it from Op. 33).

• No. 1 in F minor
• No. 2 in C major
• No. 3 in C minor
• No. 4 in A minor
• No. 5 in D minor
• No. 6 (published as No. 3) in E-flat minor
• No. 7 (4) in E-flat major
• No. 8 (5) in G minor
• No. 9 (6) in C-sharp minor

Opus 39
Published in 1917, this is the last substantial composition written by Rachmaninoff while still in Russia and shows a marked departure from his previous work. Rachmaninoff had been listening keenly to his contemporaries Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Prokofiev, and had studied Scriabin's works to prepare a memorial recital in which Rachmaninoff himself played in Scriabin's honor. Though he was roundly criticized for his overly-analytical approach in his playing and overall lack of capturing the free-flying spirit that Scriabin had summoned so well in his own pianism, the compositional seeds resulting from his studying Scriabin's work had been planted. A melodic angularity and harmonic pungency appeared in these etudes as well as in his Op. 38 songs, which were written concurrently. Those who think Rachmaninoff lost his way as a composer after he left Russia in 1917 would do well to hear or study these pieces. They show he was experimenting restlessly well before the Bolshevik revolution, and illustrate how his observation of musical trends around him helped mold and shape his future work.

• No. 1 in C minor
• No. 2 in A minor
• No. 3 in F-sharp minor
• No. 4 in B minor
• No. 5 in E-flat minor
• No. 6 in A minor
• No. 7 in C minor
• No. 8 in D minor
• No. 9 in D major

Arrangements
In 1929, conductor and music publisher Serge Koussevitsky asked whether Rachmaninoff would select a group of études tableaux for Italian composer Ottorino Respighi to orchestrate. The commissioned orchestrations would be published by Koussevitsky's firm and Koussevitsky would conduct their premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Rachmaninoff responded favorably, selecting five etudes from Opp. 33 and 39. Respighi rearranged the order of etudes, but was otherwise faithful to the composer's intent. He gave each etude a distinct title from the programmatic clues Rachmaninoff had given him:

1. La Mer et Les Mouettes (The Sea and the Seagulls)

(Op. 39 No. 2)

1. La Foire (The Fair)

(Op. 33 No. 7)

1. Marche Funebre (Funeral March)

(Op. 39 No. 7)

1. La Chaperon Rouge et Le Loupe (Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf)

(Op. 39 No. 6)

1. Marche (March)

(Op. 39 No. 9)

The above text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Études-Tableaux" ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ ).