The 24 Preludes

Sergey Rachmaninov

© 1994 - EMI Records

Tracks • Performers • Composer • Works

Tracks    •^•

Vol.1 - Vol.2

Volume 1 •^•

    Preludes (5) for piano, Op.3

  1. C Sharp Minor No.2 (Lento) (5:08)

    2. Preludes (10) for piano, Op.23

  2. F Sharp Minor (Largo) (3:52)
  3. B Flat (Maestoso) (3:46)
  4. D Minor (Tempo Di Minuetto) (3:24)
  5. D Major (Andante Cantabile) (5:11)
  6. G Minor (Alla Marcia) (4:01)
  7. E Flat (Andante) (3:11)
  8. C Minor (Allegro) (2:47)
  9. A Flat (Allegro Vivace) (3:30)
  10. E Flat Minor (Presto) (1:56)
  11. G Flat (Largo) (5:08)

Volume 2 •^•

    Preludes (13) for piano, Op.32

  1. C Major (Allegro Vivace) (1:14)
  2. B Flat Minor (Allegretto) (3:04)
  3. E Major (Allegro Vivace) (2:35)
  4. E Minor (Allegro Con Brio) (5:21)
  5. G Major (Moderato) (2:56)
  6. F Minor (Allegro Appassionato) (1:19)
  7. F Major (Moderato) (2:20)
  8. A minor (Vivo) (1:37)
  9. A Major (Allegro Moderato) (3:28)
  10. B Minor (Lento) (6:06)
  11. B Major (Allegretto) (2:14)
  12. G Sharp Minor (Allegretto) (2:43)
  13. D Flat (Grave) (6:47)

Performers:    •^•

Peter Donohoe piano

Sergey Rachmaninov    •^•

Born April 01, 1873, in Semyonovo. Died March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, CA. (Russia)

Sergey Vassilievich Rachmaninov (the name might be spelled "Rachmaninoff" or "Rakhmaninov" was one of the great pianists of all time and the last great Russian Romantic composer.

He came from a music-loving land-owning family that started him on piano lessons. But the family fortunes were on the decline; they were down to their last estate when Sergey was born, and soon they had to sell it and move to St Pete4rsburg. There he studied with Vladimir Deliansky at the Conservatory. But his parents separated, his academic grades plummeted, and Sergey was sent to Moscow Conservatory to study with the strict disciplinarian Nikolay Zverev, who always boarded three needy pupils. Rachmaninov was one of them. Living in Zverev's house, where there were weekly musical Sundays, Rachmaninov made many contacts and heard a wide variety of music.

In 1888 Rachmaninov graduated to the senior department of the conservatory, studying harmony with Lyadov. But the mentors of his piano career, Zverev and Alexander Ziloti, tried to discourage his growing interest in composition. When Rachmaninov persisted, Zverev threw him off. In the spring of 1890 he lived for the summer at the home of relatives, the Satins. On May 12, 1902 he married his cousin Natalya Satina.

He embarked on a long and successful career as a pianist and conductor. It is overlooked today, but he was such a fine conductor that he was twice invited to become music director of the Boston Symphony. He also started on a composing career with piano and orchestral music. His First Symphony was such a failure at first performance that Rachmaninov went into deep depression. The Symphony was discarded and wasn't played for decades.

He only emerged from the depression through the efforts of a psychiatrist and hypnotist named Nikolai Dahl, who taught him an auto-suggestion technique to restore his confidence. The resulting composition, his Second Piano Concerto was wildly successful. He left Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and spent the rest of his life living and touring in the West.

He recorded many of his compositions; the recordings on RCA of the four piano concertos and Paganini Rhapsody, with the Philadelphia Orchestra (conducted by Stokowski and Ormandy), are all-time classics. He became a naturalized US citizen a few weeks before his death, just three days shy of his seventieth birthday.

Rachmaninov's rich-sounding Romantic style was a popular continuation of the tradition of Borodin and Tchaikovsky.

Works by Sergey Rachmaninov:    •^•