The final piece or movement of a cycle that is virtuosic and brilliant, employing the entire range of dynamics and sonorities available to the piano, bringing a set of pieces to a glorious conclusion.
-Robin Hancock, Boston University, 1992

This “stormy, agitated” work contains a “vehemently triple-dotted main theme and only some brief mid-section hazy sunshine [that lightens] the storm before fortississimo thunders return and finally dominate.” Despite the dark imagery presented to describe the piece, the work is in C major, and the end result is more light-hearted than dark, but not as triumphal as the Maestoso would make it sound.

Like the second and fourth pieces, number six is written in the form of an étude, with a repetitive but technically challenging chordal melody that is doubled in both hands. In all, the work has three distinct elements played simultaneously: the main melody, the continuous thirty-second note broken chord figures, and a descending eighth note motif. Dynamics play a large part in this piece: the fortissimo marked at the beginning is maintained all throughout the first section, with only brief respites to mezzo forte. The middle section is wholly softer, and contains two areas with significant mounting tension, creating the aforementioned “apotheosis effect” with dramatic “false starts.”[8] Here, Rachmaninoff manipulates the theme contrapuntally to develop a canonic effect. This “triple counterpoint. . . is titanic both in size and impact, and in potential for disaster,” referring to the tension, waiting for the final climax, in this “continuing explosion.” Immediately before the coda, the thick texture and canon suddenly disappear and the piece becomes piano. Upon entering the coda, the work resumes the forte theme and amalgamates to a majestic ending played fortississimo.

Maestoso is one of the most difficult pieces in the set. Stamina and strength are required to sustain a full resonant sound, while the continuous thirty-second figure can be tiring for the pianist. Consistent tempo is a problem for this piece, due to the melody being interspersed with two other elements. Additionally, the dynamics, mostly “loud” and “very loud,” indicate that an accurate vision of relative volume is necessary. Maintaining this accuracy while managing every other element of the piece and successfully presenting a musically solid performance continues to be the ultimate challenge of all.

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By Vadim Chaimovich

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Ivo Pogorelić

Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 6 in C major sheet music

Lacking any prodigious figures or difficult runs, the piece displays Rachmaninoff’s capability for musical lyricism. Although the piece seems simple, the mood must be sustained by playing simultaneously restrained but dynamic triplet figures in the left hand. The melody, a chordal texture with frequent suspended tones, creates a difficult task in voicing, and placing the correct emphasis on the correct notes. Its relatively short melody lines are a direct contrast to Rachmaninoff’s characteristically long lines, giving a shorter time to bring out the phrases.

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By Vadim Chaimovich

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Vladimir Horowitz

Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 5 D flat major sheet music

Presto is in ternary form with a coda. The piece begins with a fortissimo introduction with a thick texture in the left hand consisting of chromatic sextuplets. The melody is a “rising quasi-military” idea, interspersed between replications of the left hand figure, the mostly two-note melody being a strong unifying element. The middle section is a brief period of pianississimo falling figures in the right hand and rising scales in the left. The third section is marked Più vivo (more life) and is played even faster than the intro, 112 quarter notes per minute. At this point the piece develops a very thick texture, with the original left hand figure played in both hands in varying registers. The technique of rapidly change the octave in which a melody is played, sometimes called “registral displacement”, is used to present the figure in a more dramatic form that increases the intensity of the ending. The ending, a coda in Prestissimo (very quick), 116 quarter notes per minute, is a final, sweeping reiteration of the theme that closes in a heavy E minor chord, which revisits Rachmaninoff’s preoccupation with bell sounds, prominent in his Piano Concerto No. 2 and Prelude in C-sharp minor (Op. 3, No. 2).

The piece is a major exercise in endurance and accuracy: the introduction opens in a left hand figure requiring span of a tenth interval. Additionally, octave intervals invariably appear before fast sextuplet runs, making quick wrists and arm action necessary. The double melodies Rachmaninoff uses in this work exists purposely to “keep both hands occupied,” obscuring the melody and making it difficult for the right hand to project. This is the only piece in the set with indicated pedal markings.

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By Nikolai Lugansky

By Lazar Berman

By Vadim Chaimovich

Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 4 E minor sheet music

Comprising only 55 measures, this piece is one of the shortest but has one of the longer playing times of about seven minutes. The piece is structured as a three-part form. The theme of the first section is played entirely in minor thirds, accompanied by a left hand figure of open fifths and octaves. The middle section has the melody in minor sixths, alongside a staccato octave bass. The lament of the opening theme transforms into an explicit funeral march as the left-hand octaves become regular.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Andrei Gavrilov

By Anna Shelest

By Vadim Chaimovich

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Lazar Berman

Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 3 in B minor sheet music

Rachmaninoff revised this piece in March 1940, changing the melody but leaving the constant sextuplets, proving that the rushing figures are not simple bravura or flair.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By Eduard Lenner

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Vladimir Sofronitsky

By Vladimir Horowitz

By Ivo Pogorelić

Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 2 E flat minor sheet music

Andantino is the longest in the set by playing time (about 8:30). It is described as a “generic-hybrid,” combining elements of the nocturne and theme and variation genres. The melody is chromatic, syncopated, and long, all idiosyncratic elements Rachmaninoff often includes in his works. Because of this, the Andantino is sometimes called an extension of his Nocturne in A minor of the Morceaux de Salon set (Op. 10, No. 1, 1894). However, Andantino stands on its own with difficulties, such as the sections with multiple phrases in a single hand.

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By Vyacheslav Gryaznov

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Lazar Berman

By Ivo Pogorelić

Part 2/1

By Ivo Pogorelić

Part 2/2

Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 1 in B flat minor sheet music