This piece is one of his most enduringly popular pieces, and established his fame as a concerto composer.

At its 1897 premiere, Rachmaninoff’s first symphony, though now considered a significant achievement, was derided by critics. Compounded by problems in his personal life, Rachmaninoff fell into a depression that lasted for several years. His second piano concerto confirmed his recovery from clinical depression and writer’s block. The concerto was dedicated to Nikolai Dahl, a physician who had done much to restore Rachmaninoff’s self-confidence.

The opening movement begins with a series of bell-like tollings on the piano that build tension, eventually climaxing in the introduction of the main theme. In this first section, the orchestra carries the Russian-character melody while the piano makes an accompaniment made of arpeggios riddled with half steps. After the statement of the long first theme, a quicker transition follows until the more lyrical second theme, in E flat major, is presented.

The agitated and unstable development borrows motives from both themes changing keys very often and giving the melody to different instruments while a new musical idea is slowly formed. The music builds in a huge climax as if the work was going to repeat the first bars of the work, but the recapitulation is going to be quite different.

While the orchestra restates the first theme, the piano, that in the other occasion had an accompaniment role, now plays the march-like theme that had been halfly presented in the development, thus making a considerable readjustment in the exposition, as the main theme, played by the orchestra has become an accompaniment. This is followed by a piano solo, which leads into a descending chromatic passage and concluding with an eery french horn solo. From here the last minutes of the movement are placid until drawn into the agitated coda, and the piece ends in C minor fortissimo.

The second movement opens with a series of slow chords in the strings which modulate from the C minor of the previous movement to the E major of this movement. The piano enters, playing a simple arpeggiated figure. A flute then introduces the main theme. The motif is passed between the piano and other soloists before the music accelerates to a short climax centered on the piano. The original theme is repeated, and the music appears to die away, finishing with just the soloist in E major.

The last movement opens with a short orchestral introduction that modulates from E (the key of the previous movement) to C, before a piano solo leads to the statement of the agitated first theme. After the original fast tempo and musical drama ends, a lyrical theme is introduced by the oboe and violas. This second theme maintains the motif of the first movement’s second theme. After a long period of development tension is built up considerably. Near the end, Rachmaninoff restates the second theme in loud, fortissimo orchestration. After this, a fast, ecstatic coda draws the piece to a close, ending in C major.

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Evgeny Kissin: piano

Sir Andrew Davis: conductor

BBCSO

part 1/2 (I)

part 2/2 (I)

part 1/2 (II)

part 2/2 (II)

part 1/2 (III)

part 2/2 (III)

Arcadi Volodos: piano

Riccardo Chailly: conductor

Royal Concertgebow Orchestra

part 1/3

part 2/3

part 3/3

Boris Berezovsky: piano

Dmitry Liss: conductor

Ural Philarmonic Orchestra

part 1/3

part 2/3

part 3/3

Piano Concerto Op. 18 No. 2 in C minor 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.

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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

By Alexander Gavrylyuk

By Alexei Sultanov

By Vladimir Horowitz

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Etude – tableaux Op. 39 No. 5 in E-flat minor sheet music

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By Alexander Gavrylyuk

By Evgeny Kissin

By Sara Daneshpour

By Evgeny Kissin

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Etude – tableaux Op. 39 No. 1 in C minor sheet music

By Solomon Cutner

Waltz Op. posth. in E minor sheet music

• Theme A tempo giusto chordal with a walking pace feel;
• Theme B più mosso (faster) – theme stated in running eighth notes, with all harmony in the left hand.
• Theme C più lento (slower) – a sostenuto in the tonic major (D-flat major, enharmonic equivalent to C-sharp major). Besides the slower general pace, the melody is in quarter notes except for a few flourishes in eighth notes, giving this section the quality of an interlude before the dramatic restatement of Theme B

The overall layout of the piece is A B C B A B. The piece ends with a fade-out rather than the strident chords of his first Grande Valse Brillante (Op 18).

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By Evgeny Kissin

By Arthur Rubinstein

Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in C sharp minor sheet music

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By Evgeny Kissin

By Julio Garci­a Casas

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Lang Lang

Waltz brillante Op. 34 No. 1 in A-flat major sheet music

By Evgeny Kissin

Mazurka Op. 68 No. 4 in F minor sheet music

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Julio Garci­a Casas

Mazurka Op. 67 No. 4 in A minor sheet music

By Stanislav Bunin

By Evgeny Kissin

By Arthur Rubinstein

By Maurizio Pollini

Mazurka Op. 50 No. 3 in C sharp minor sheet music

The Grande Polonaise brillante is a work for piano and orchestra, although the piano part is often played on its own. This is usually considered to be Chopin’s most difficult piece for piano. The Andante spianato (spianato means “even, or smooth”) for solo piano was composed as an introduction to the Polonaise after Chopin received a long-awaited invitation to perform in one of Habaneck’s Conservatoire Concerts in Paris. The combined work was premiered by the composer there on April 26, 1835.

Chopin’s first work, written at age seven, had been a polonaise. The Grande Polonaise brillante of 1830-31 was to be the last such he would compose for several years. It preoccupied Chopin in his final months at Warsaw. It was finished at Vienna in 1831.

Andante spianato in G major

The quiet rippling effects of this introductory section are borne in a gentle 6/8, rounded with a chordal trio in C major, and a more processional 3/4. The very serene middle section is not a trio, but only a contrasting episode to complement the overall texture of the movement. Not being a trio, it is not in C major but remains in G major.

Grande Polonaise brillante in E-flat major

The Polonaise opens in fanfare. It moves into the ebullient and fearless dance form of which he was such a master. Chopin’s unexpected and brief excursions, the many electric shocks of surprise and alarm, and the sheer poetic gusto with which he approached these materials was astonishing and, for years, unequalled. In 1836 it was arranged as a piano quartet and, two years later, the solo piano work known today.

Consequently the polonaise has been regarded as one of the most famous and brilliant polonaise pieces.

By Nadejda Vlaeva

By Claire Huangci

By Evgeny Kissin Part 1/2

By Evgeny Kissin Part 2/2

By Yuindi Li

By Lang Lang

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Krystian Zimerman

Grande Polonaise brillante Op. 22 sheet music

The polonaise is in ternary form, with a central Mazurka section in A major.

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By Evgeny Kissin part 1

By Evgeny Kissin part 2

By Vladimir Horowitz

Polonaise Op. 44 F sharp minor sheet music

The scherzo is in sonata form. The beginning is marked Presto and opens in B flat minor. However, most of the work is written in D flat major and A major. The opening to the piece consists of two arpeggiated pianissimo chords, and after a moments pause,goes into a set of fortissimo chords,an unmistakable use of contrast, then returning to the quiet arpeggiated chords.

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By Mikhail Pletnyov

By Yuindi Li

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Evgeny Kissin

Scherzo Op. 31 No. 2 B flat minor sheet music

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By Sergio Tiempo

By Evgeny Kissin

Prélude Op. 28 No. 16 B flat minor

Chopin cited the poet Adam Mickiewicz as an influence for his ballades (this according to a rumour based on a remark by Robert Schumann concerning the genesis of Chopin’s second ballade). The exact inspiration for each piece is not clear.

The music is built from two main themes, the first introduced in bar 7 after the short introduction, and the second in bar 69. Both themes return in different guises. The piece is in compound duple time (6/4) except for the short introduction (in 4/4) and the coda (in 2/2). Sections of the piece are technically demanding, requiring complex fingering, wide chords, octaves, extremely fast chords, and even a section of chromatic chords near the end. Its complex structure combines ideas from sonata and variation forms.

Schumann wrote in a letter to Heinrich Dorn about the Ballade, “I received a new Ballade from Chopin. It seems to be a work closest to his genius (although not the most ingenious) and I told him that I like it best of all his compositions. After quite a lengthy silence he replied with emphasis, ‘I am happy to hear this since I too like it most and hold it dearest.’”

In the coda (”Presto con fuoco”) there is a passage which is very similar (possibly intentionally) to one in the third movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 23 “Appassionata”.

The ballade was played twice by Janusz Olejniczak in the Roman Polanski film The Pianist. The first time, a few bars are heard when the pianist Władysław Szpilman “plays the piano” in the air in the abandoned German hospital. The second time, an approximately 4 minute-cut is heard in the film, while a full version is included in the film soundtrack.

In the 1944 Ingrid Bergman film Gaslight, the ballade was played by a pianist at the musical gathering she attends.

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By Krystian Zimerman

By Evgeny Kissin

Ballade Op. 23 No. 1 sheet music