Its first performance was by the composer on 8/20 October 1892[2], at a festival called the Moscow Electrical Exhibition, which Rachmaninoff considered his debut as a pianist. After this première, a review singled the Prelude out of the entire concert, noting that it had “aroused enthusiasm”. From this point on, its popularity would grow.

This work was one of the first Rachmaninoff composed as a “Free Artist”, after he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory on May 29, 1892. He performed this new work for the first time, at one of the concerts of the Moscow Electrical Exhibition on 8/20 October 1892. it was printed the following year as the second of five Morceaux de Fantaisie (Op. 3), all dedicated to Anton Arensky, his harmony teacher at the Conservatory. Because at the time Russia was not party to the 1886 Berne Convention, Russian publishers did not pay royalties, so the only financial return he ever received for this piece was a 40 ruble ($1.64, £0.80) publishing fee.

The prelude is organized into three main parts and a coda. Three opening chords at fortissimo introduce the grim C sharp minor tonality that dominates the piece. The cadential motif repeats throughout. In the third measure, the volume changes to a pianississimo for the exposition of the theme. The second part is propulsive and marked Agitato (agitated), beginning with highly chromatic triplets. This passionately builds to interlocking chordal triplets that descend into a climactic recapitulation of the main theme, this time in four staves to accommodate the volume of notes. Certain chords in the section are marked with quadruple sforzando. The piece closes with a brief seven-measure coda which ends quietly.

The prelude became one of Rachmaninoff’s most famous compositions.
His cousin Alexander Siloti was instrumental in securing the Prelude’s success throughout the Western world. In the autumn of 1898, he made a tour of Western Europe and the United States, with a program that contained the Prelude. Soon after, London publishers brought out several editions with titles such as The Burning of Moscow, The Day of Judgement, and The Moscow Waltz. America followed suit with other titles, such as The Bells of Moscow.[3]It was so popular that it was referred to as “The Prelude” and audiences would demand it as an encore at his performances, shouting “C sharp!” It was recorded by the composer both electrically and on Ampico piano rolls. Amazingly, the composer was but 19 years of age at the time he wrote this piece. The work haunted him until his death despite the enormous quantity of great works he composed after this small prelude! Some say Rachmaninoff came to hate the work. Most however agree he would simply shrug in resignation and play it.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Emil Gilels

By Josef Hofmann

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 3 in C sharp minor sheet music

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 11 in B major sheet music

By Abdel Rahman El Bacha

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Grigory Sokolov

By Evgeny Kissin

Prelude Op. 23 No. 10 in G flat major sheet music

The prelude’s form is similar to that of a traditional three-part rondo, consisting of an opening “A” section with punctuated sixteenth-note chords (marked Alla marcia), a more lyrical and melancholy “B” section with arpeggiated triplets in the left hand (marked Poco meno mosso), a transition into the original tempo, and a recapitulation of the initial march. Despite the bombast of the main march theme, the piece ends with a short arpeggiated run to a high G, marked pianissimo.

Although the g minor prelude is not considered one of the most technically challenging preludes, the speed of the march section and its thick repeated chords require both strong wrists and dynamic control, while the middle section requires a controlled legato in both hands to ensure that the melody is properly projected.
The composer recorded this piece, but because of the piece’s musical “flexibility”, it can be found performed in a variety of different styles, much contrary to the composer’s recordings.

There is a famous video in which Emil Gilels plays this Prelude at a front in World War II, in support for the Soviet military forces fighting the war. The narrator says (in Russian): “Gilels is playing at the front, to remind us what the war is worth fighting for: Immortal music!”

This Prelude is one of the most performed and recorded pieces of the set, displaying the virtuosity and musical genius of Rachmaninoff.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Evgeny Kissin

By Andrei Gavrilov

By Emil Gilels

By Vladimir Horowitz

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Sergei Rachmaninov

Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 in G minor sheet music

By Emil Gilels

By Valentina Igoshina

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Grigory Sokolov

Prelude Op. 23 No. 2 in B flat major sheet music

The sonata consists of four movements, similar in structure to the second sonata, with a lyrical largo replacing the funeral march.

1. Allegro maestoso
2. Scherzo: Molto vivace
3. Largo
4. Finale: Presto non tanto; Agitato

A performance of the work lasts around 25-35 minutes.

The work opens on a martial note, the heavy chords and filigree in the opening of the first movement giving way to a more melodic second theme, eventually leading to the conclusion of the exposition in the relative major, D. Motives of the original theme emerge in the development, which, unconventionally, returns to the second theme (as opposed to the first) for the recapitulation. The movement concludes in B major.

The scherzo, in the distant key of E flat and in strict ternary form, characterised by ebullient quaver runs in the right hand, with a more demure chordal middle section. It uses a theme from the composer’s First Ballade, Unlike the scherzo of the B-flat minor sonata (and, indeed, the rest of Chopin’s contributions to the genre outside of the sonatas), it is exceptionally short, barely lasting two minutes in an average performance.

Despite a stormy introduction in dotted rhythm, the largo is serene, almost nocturne-like; a mellow and expansive middle section, again characterised by quaver figuration in the background of an intensely harmonic line, separates the more cantabile outer sections in B major. It is the most musically profound of the movements (Kraemer, 1991), in terms of a sustained melody and innovative harmonic progression; it rivals the extensive first movement in length alone.

Its dramatic introduction-a rising harmonic progression left hanging on a high dominant seventh-aside, the finale, in B minor, is pervaded by a “galloping” rhythm; emphasis in the melodic line on the first and third beats of each half-measure outlines the fifth through eighth degrees of a harmonic minor scale (lending prominence to the augmented second between the sixth and seventh scale degrees). The overall melody, chromatic yet rooted in the minor tonic, contributes a dark mood to these primary sections. A more triumphant second theme in B major, repeated twice in the movement’s A-B-A-B-A form, appears quite suddenly at the conclusion of the first (likewise when repeated); eventually rising during fleet-fingered runs over a left-hand melody, it tumbles back to a dramatic restatement of the main theme in both of its appearances. The piece concludes in a jubilant B major coda.

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By Emil Gilels part 1/4

By Emil Gilels part 2/4

By Emil Gilels part 3/4

By Emil Gilels part 4/4

Sonata in B minor Op. 58 No. 3 sheet music

Although the piece is labeled as a polonaise, it has little to do with the typical polonaise style. It presents two sections with a polonaise rhythm, but most of it has no particular polonaise attribute. It has been said that Chopin had composed the piece having a free and powerful Poland in mind, which may have led him to label it as a polonaise.

Another possibility is that the Heroic Polonaise is closely related to the Polonaise in A major, Op.40, No. 1, known as the Military Polonaise, which, unlike the Heroic, is a true polonaise.

The tempo of the piece is Alla polacca e maestoso (”like a polonaise and majestic”). The form is ternary (A-B-A), with a 30-second introduction.

The piece has a grand introduction with fast ascending chromatic notes in both hands, setting the mood of the piece. It shows the heroic side of Chopin’s art.The first theme is a dance-like theme and is in the tonic key of A-flat major. It is the familiar part of the piece, and has the left hand moving in pounding octaves. The theme is repeated up an octave with short trills that fill some of the auditory gaps in the theme. There is a brief interlude with a series of chord progressions that lead into a recount of the traditional polonaise melody, with the polonaise rhythm employed in the left-hand accompaniment. The theme of Section A then repeats once before closing. Section B opens with six loud arpeggiando chords before switching to a very soft bass ostinato of descending octaves first in the key of E major and then in E-flat major. A march-like melody follows the descending octaves and this occurs twice. Section B ends, with a long lyrical interlude firstly with harmonic chord progressions and frequent modulations. A flowing sixteenth note melody in the right hand and light accompaniment in quavers (eighth notes). This ends in a descending passage before Section A is replayed. The theme is played louder and more dramatically and ends in a coda which includes material derived from the main theme.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Rafał Blechacz

By Martha Argerich

By Lazar Berman

By Emil Gilels

Polonaise Op. 53 A flat major sheet music