Rachmaninoff prelude in d major program notes

The painting shows a man sitting next to a reflecting pool, his attention focused on a house in shadow, with one window lit.

The music captures both the anticipation and the anxiety surrounding his reception. Let them paint for themselves what it most suggests. Two months after the October Revolution, Rachmaninoff fled the country with his wife and daughters. The family eventually ended up in the United States, where Rachmaninoff supported them with a relentless schedule of concert tours. Throughout his life, Rachmaninoff was fascinated — or perhaps haunted — by the music of the Dies irae Day of Wrath.

This melody comes from the liturgy of the requiem mass, and the text describes the Day of Judgment, when all souls must account to God for their sins. Rachmaninoff incorporated the Dies irae into many of his best-known compositions, including the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Isle of the Dead, and the Symphonic Dances.

Alexander Scriabin died before he could fully realize the musical and philosophical ideas that fired his creative impulses. In a sense, Scriabin was a man out of time; his interests in and explorations of religious, transcendent, and erotic experiences fit the zeitgeist of the late s far better than the first decade of the 20th century. By the time he wrote the Tenth Sonata, Scriabin had moved beyond 19th-century tonality.

He became increasingly preoccupied with musical gestures and repeating fragments or intervals; these building blocks, rather than conventional key areas or traditional sonata structure, inform the underlying architecture of the Tenth Sonata.

The interval of the descending third, along with a series of trills, recur throughout the music, acting as musical signposts as well as evocations of nature. Leon McCawley. Barbara Nissman. Three Oranges Recordings. Rachmaninoff: Complete Piano Works, Vol. Sergio Fiorentino. Rachmaninov: Complete Works for Piano. Rachmaninov: The Complete Works. Rachmaninov: 24 Preludes; Suite No. Nino Gvetadze. EtCetera Records. Guillaume Vincent. Junko Inada. Acousence Classics. Sergey Rachmaninoff: Piano Works Solo.

Michael Ponti. Musical Concepts. Peter Katin. Sergei Rachmaninov: Preludes Opp. Dmitri Alexeev. Konstantin Lifschitz. Denon Records. Steven Osborne. Rachmaninoff; 13 Preludes, Op. Carlo Grante. Sviatoslav Richter: Pianist of the Century. Sviatoslav Richter. Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. EMI Classics. Rachmaninov: Preludes.

Eldar Nebolsin. Lilya Zilberstein. Rachmaninov: Sonata No. Marietta Petkova. Challenge Records. David Stanhope: A Virtuoso Recital. David Stanhope. Tall Poppies. APR Appian. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Preludes. Alexis Weissenberg.

Moura Lympany. Boris Berezovsky. Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. Rca Red Seal. Rachmaninov: Complete Preludes. Rustem Hayroudinoff. John Ogdon Plays Rachmaninov.

John Ogdon. EMI Music Distribution. Rachmaninoff: Preludes, Opp. Jung-Ja Kim. Kleos Classics. John Lill. Rachmaninov: Piano Music. Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. Elan Recordings. Peter Donohoe. Warner Classics. Rakhmaninov: Preludes Op. Rachmaninov: The Piano Concertos. Rachmaninov: 24 Preludes; Piano Sonata No. Rachmaninov: The Preludes. IMP Classics. Ronald Brautigam. Rachmaninov: 13 Preludes, Op. Anthony di Bonaventura. Some of them are very beautiful, and I will definitely post them here at a later moment.

Rachmaninoff gathered only 10 preludes in opus 23, but together with his 13 preludes in opus 32, and his most famous prelude in C-sharp minor , he also covers all 24 minor and major keys. He said about these short pieces:. The prelude of today is the one in D major. When searching on Youtube, very different recordings of this piece can be found. Compare for example Richter to Sokolov. The recordings that I chose today are like last week! I hope you enjoyed the piece.

For me it is a small masterpiece to which I cherish strong memories. It feels like a short summary of the struggles we can encounter in life. I am not really myself except in music. Music is enough for an entire lifetime, but an entire lifetime is not enough for music.