Rachmaninoff: Essential Works for Beginners
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- Опубліковано 31 січ 2024
- Rachmaninoff: Essential Works for Beginners
Piano Concerto No. 2
Symphony No. 2
Preludes (for piano, Opp 3, 23, 32-24 in all)
Symphonic Dances
Études-Tableaux (for piano, Opp. 33 and 39)
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
The Bells
Thanks, Dave. So many “critics” denigrate Rachmaninov, which does a great disservice to people new to classical music. Most of us would agree that he wrote some of the most beautiful melodies in all of Western music, which is a good thing! Thank you for a sympathetic view of his music.
Oh, that alto sax solo in the Symphonic Dances…one of the great expressions of longing (to me, anywho).
I’ve sung one of songs, “Dream”, and perhaps the most famous selection from Vespers, the Ave Maria, and his vocal music is wonderful to sing as well as hear.
When I was a kid and just discovering classical music, I used to tape music at random from classical radio. One evening I sort of passively heard the announcer introduce a piece, pressed record on my stereo and left my room. By chance, the tape stopped at the end of the piece, before the presenter back-announced it. I listened to that tape like mad, every single day, until it was so worn and chewed that I had to throw it away - miserably reflecting that I'd never find out what the music was.
It was only years later, when I came home from the CD shop and pressed play on my brand new Askenazy set of Rachmaninoff symphonies, and heard once again that oh-so-gloriously-familiar ominous motif, that I discovered I'd been listening to Rachmaninoff's first symphony. I was so excited that I actually ran to the living room to tell my dad, who politely feigned interest. God I love that symphony! It would be on my list of essentials!
Great list, Dave. Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil will be a great reward for those further exploring his wonderful music.
Good add. My fave work of his
Mine, too, Richard.
I love the Symphonic Dances, as well as his other late masterpiece, the Third Symphony, especially the second movement, which is very original and incredibly colourful.
Great list. Not just for beginners. So glad to see "The Bells" and "Symphonic Dances" here.
Yeah...Rachmaninoff...one of the truly greatest composers of the 20th Century (along with RVW) completely neglected in my Musical survey courses.....except every major and not so major orchestra was playing Rachmaninoff and not Webern or Stockhausen (the guys we were studying in school)....Ravel always got left out or was given short shrift as well....and he too was a genius....
There are times when I forget about the existence of "the bells" and when I then come back to that piece, I'm always mindlown for yet another time... what a fantastic work
Oh Rachmaninoff yesss!=) This series is amazing! I've never had any idea where to start with Mahler, Debussy, Shostakovich, or Schubert, but now I know. Thank you very much!
I'm especially looking forward to Mendelssohn, Dvořák, Sibelius, Richard Strauss, Ives, and Prokofiev.
By the way, this video got left out of the Rachmaninoff Surveys and the ESSENTIAL LIsts for BEGINNERS playlists. Maybe there was some technical issue.
Thanks. Hopefully this is fixed now. I really appreciate your letting me know about these things.
Dankeschön again. Take care. 🎶👍🇩🇪I just listened to Piano Concerto No.2 with Rubinstein after I watched your vid. 👍🎶
Dave...did you ever notice how many mid Century film composers emulated Rachmaninoff...thematically, harmonically and in Orchestration?
Thank you mr Hurwitz! This series is very informative and most helpful for those not already accustomed with the repertoire. And always well-delivered, with passion and joy!
Dave, I would like to ask If It is possible to do one of these for MESSIAEN, I'M a newbie in Classical music and I feel kinda intimidated by him (and other contemporary composers) I have heard his famous Symphony and Felt in love, but still afraid to dive in. Anyways, thanks for your videos they are really important for me.
Happy to. Thanks for the suggestion.
Wonder if Finster is jealous of the recency bias for Mildred...
Finster was a regular in the Overflow Room until Dave started playing his gong 😂
She's been back since then, and will return again when she feels up to it.
Eric Carmen's All by Myself uses the slow movement from the 2nd piano concerto for the verse and the opening of the slow movement of the 2nd symphony for the chorus.
The first time I heard the Rach, that very familiar melody (thank you, Céline) stopped me in my tracks!
Thank you for another great video. I'm wondering, though, how to interpret Mildred sleeping through your videos. Does sleeping indicate tacit approval, but if you say something really egregious she'll wake up and meow?
She's a cat and doesn't care about anything other than what she wants. I don't think we can read any more into it than that, but if you watched my Vierne video I did ask for her opinion and she did answer me.
For what it’s worth, the NSO performed an all Rachmaninoff concert last summer (with Noseda) which included not only The Bells, but his fourth piano concerto. It was nice not to hear the same old warhorses, as marvelous as they are.
I'm glad Dave mentioned the songs and Wild's transcriptions. Easy to find on UA-cam are the transcriptions made by Arcadi Volodos of a handful of songs (which I think are some of the finest examples of such) and his outstanding transcription of the andante from the Cello Sonata, which is a wonderful work full of Rachmaninov's trademark bitter-sweet melodies.
Wow - I am totally turned onto Rachmaninov now! Thanks Dave! 😊
I feel very fortunate that during my professional orchestral career got to perform all 3 symphonies (3rd for conductor audition), all piano concertos, rhapsody, and of course Peter & the wolf.
Guess you could say I performed all the music from Rocky 😂
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
I think a lot of cuts were made at that time to accommodate recording on 78 rpm records.....what do you think?
No.
I love the 2nd piano concerto. It was my introduction to classical music along with his 2nd Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s 5th. My favorite melodies from the second cocerto are in the slow movement. It reminds me of the Grieg concerto’s slow movement which I read was a favorite of Rachmaninov’s. Is it true that he regarded the Grieg concerto as perfect?
Dear Dave, would you consider doing an ideal video on Schumann Symphonies and orchestral works or videos on individual Schumann Symphonies? Thank you very much!
Sure, thanks for the suggestion.
People don’t give him enough love nowadays. Seems like he’s out of fashion for some reason
There has been a dispute about the very ending chord of the first movement of his 2nd Symphony whether to use the original lower strings only or to substitute a timpani forte stroke on a E natural lower drum. Case in point the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Petrenko instructing the timpanist to do so. Being a timpanist myself I would have to say it is more of an impactfull ending. Just my opinion
There is no dispute. The timpani ending is wrong. Rachmaninoff didn't write it, and the ending sounds far better without it because the "final" chord is actually the one preceding the last note on the basses--it's a wonderfully imaginative use of musical punctuation: a "word" followed by a "period." In a sentence, the last word is more important than a mere punctuation mark, and so it is here.
In this case Rachmaninov deliberately chose not to write an impactful ending to the movement. It sounds odd at first hearing but that was his plan. Reminds me a bit of the first and last movement of Sibelius 1, both deliberately anticlimactic but highly effective endings. Mariss Jansons with the Oslo PO in Rach 2 used the correct original ending as far as I know.
The abandonment of the melody in Symphony 2 Mvt 3 is not unlike that of the first movement of the piano concerto 1 by Tchaikovsky. I wonder if Rach did that on purpose.