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By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Alexis Weissenberg

Prelude Op. 32 No. 13 in D flat major sheet music

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Vadim Chaimovich

By Vladimir Horowitz

By Valentina Lisitsa

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Vladimir Sofronitsky

Prelude Op. 32 No. 12 in G sharp minor sheet music

By Emil Gilels

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

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

By Valentina Lisitsa

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 10 in B minor sheet music

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 9 in A major sheet music

By David Fung

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 8 in A minor sheet music

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 7 in F major sheet music

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 6 in F minor sheet music

By Vladimir Horowitz

By Vadim Chaimovich

By Valentina Lisitsa

By Grigory Sokolov

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 5 in G major sheet music

By Dmitri Levkovich

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 4 in E minor sheet music

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 3 in E major sheet music

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 2 in B flat minor sheet music

By Lillya Zilberstein

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 32 No. 1 in C major sheet music

By Emil Gilels

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

By Abdel Rahman El Bacha

By Grigory Sokolov

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 23 No. 9 in E flat minor sheet music

By Abdel Rahman El Bacha

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Grigory Sokolov

Prelude Op. 23 No. 8 in A flat major sheet music

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Vadim Chaimovich

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Grigory Sokolov

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 23 No. 7 in C minor sheet music

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Abdel Rahman El Bacha

By Van Cliburn

By Vladimir Sofronitsky

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Grigory Sokolov

Prelude Op. 23 No. 6 in E flat major sheet music

The Prelude in G minor, Op. 23 No. 5 is a composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff completed 1901. It was included in his Opus 23 set of ten preludes despite having been written two years earlier than the other nine. It is an epitome of Rachmaninoff’s Russian nationalism, rife with full chords and evocative melodies.The Prelude in G minor, Op. 23 No. 5 is a composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff completed 1901. It was included in his Opus 23 set of ten preludes despite having been written two years earlier than the other nine. It is an epitome of Rachmaninoff’s Russian nationalism, rife with full chords and evocative melodies.

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Abdel Rahman El Bacha

By Grigory Sokolov

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 23 No. 4 in D major sheet music

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Abdel Rahman El Bacha

By Grigory Sokolov

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 23 No. 3 in D minor sheet music

By Evgeny Kissin

By Emil Gilels

By Valentina Igoshina

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

By Grigory Sokolov

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

By Nikolai Lugansky

By Abdel Rahman El Bacha

By Sviatoslav Richter

By Grigory Sokolov

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. 23 No. 1 in F sharp minor sheet music

By Vladimir Ashkenazy

Prelude Op. posth. in A flat major sheet music

The prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 (sometimes listed as Prelude No. 25), was composed in 1841. It was dedicated to Princess E. Czernicheff, and contains widely extending basses and highly expressive and effective chromatic modulations over a rather uniform thematic basis.

The long last Prelude of the set, No. 24 opens with a thundering five-note pattern in the left hand. Throughout the piece, the left hand continues this pattern as the right hand plays a powerful melody punctuated by trills, scales (including a rapid descending chromatic scale in thirds), and arpeggios. The piece closes with three booming unaccompanied notes– the lowest D on the piano.

Prelude No. 23 is spacious and melodic in the left hand, with running semiquavers throughout in the right.

Prelude No. 22, molto agitato, is in 6/8 time; it begins with a characteristic dotted rhythm (quaver, dotted quaver, semiquaver) that Scriabin was later to make his own, in his early preludes that are perhaps the most important to emulate this genre of Chopin’s.

Prelude No. 21 is marked cantabile, and features an easy melody in the right hand; the left has continuous doubled quavers characterised by chromatic movement, taken up by the right hand also in the latter half of the piece.

Prelude No. 20 is short but quite famous, with slow majestic crotchet chords in the right hand predominating, against crotchet octaves in the left. It was originally written in two sections of four measures, although Chopin later added a repeat of the last four measures at a softer level, with an expressive swell before the final cadence.

Prelude No. 19, vivace, consists of widely spaced continuous triplet-quaver movement in both hands.

The irregular Prelude No. 18 is suggestive of a mortal struggle. The technical challenges lie chiefly in the irregular timing of the three runs, each faster than its predecessor, played simultaneously by each hand one octave apart. A fortissimo five-octave arpeggio echoes downward into the depths of the bass registers, where the final struggle takes place and culminates with the double-fortissimo chord finale.

Prelude No. 17 is one of the longest and the favourite of many musicians, including Clara Schumann. Mendelssohn wrote of it “I love it! I cannot tell you how much or why; except perhaps that it is something which I could never at all have written.”

Following the “Raindrop”, the angry Prelude No. 16 starts with six heavily accented chords before progressing to an impromptu-like passage in the right hand. The left hand mainly supports the right hand and repeats the same melody repeatedly. This piece is considered the most difficult of the set.

Prelude No. 15 in D-flat, nicknamed the “Raindrop” Prelude, is the longest of the twenty-four. The main melody is repeated three times; it is melancholy, despite its major key. The middle section is much darker; the melody moves to the bass and the right hand mostly repeats G sharp (enharmonically equivalent to the repeated A flat of the opening section), first alone and then in octaves. The mood becomes more agitated with the melody’s return to the right hand and an increase in volume, with many large chords. After this the melody and texture of the first section return briefly, leading to a restful ending.

Prelude No. 14 recalls Prelude No. 1 in its shortness and textural uniformity.

Prelude No. 13, lento, is long and has continuous single-note quaver movement in the left hand, with chords and melody in the right.

Prelude No. 12 presents a technical challenge with its rapid hold-and-release of quavers against crotchets in the right hand, involving much chromatic movement.

Prelude No. 11 is in 6/8 time and is similarly brisk, with continuous quavers.

Prelude No. 10, molto allegro, is short and light, with alternating triplet and non-triplet semiquavers in the right hand, over arpeggiato chords in the left.

Prelude No. 9 is a harmonically dense piece with a low “plodding” bass line.

Prelude No. 8, molto agitato, is considered one of the most difficult in the set, featuring continuous demisemiquaver figuration in the right hand, with contrasting semiquaver triplets (alternating with quavers) in the left hand.

Prelude No. 7 is written in the style of a mazurka, in 3/4 time.

By Alexander Kobrin

By Rafał Blechacz

Prélude Op. 28 No. 6 B minor sheet music

By Alexander Kobrin

By Rafał Blechacz

Prélude Op. 28 No. 5 D major sheet music

Prelude No. 4 is one of the most famous pieces Chopin wrote. It was played at his funeral and is relatively easy, with a slow melody in the right hand and repeated block chords in the left hand.

Prelude No. 3 is marked vivace, and has a running semiquaver bass part throughout.

Prelude No. 2 is an immediate contrast, with a slow melody over a fixed accompaniment of four-note chords played two quaver notes at a time.

Prelude No. 1 marked agitato, is short and uniform with its triplet-semiquaver figuration.