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Sergei Rachmaninov Prelude Op. 32 No. 12 in G sharp minor

zygis — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:27:25 +0000

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

Sergei Rachmaninov Prelude Op. 23 No. 7 in C minor

zygis — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:13:54 +0000

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

Sergei Rachmaninov Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 5 D flat major

zygis — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:42:45 +0000

Following the torrential gauntlets of number four is the fifth piece, likened in a Ph.D thesis to a passage in the Bible (1 Kings 19:12, read text), which says, “And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” This is in direct reference to the position of the work between two pieces with “incredible pyrotechnics,” as the figurative calm before and after the storm. The piece is similar to the form of a barcarolle, a folk song with a rhythmic tuplet accompaniment. Playing it takes approximately five minutes, and it is 53 measures long, the shortest in terms of measures. It is an adagio sostenuto (sustained at ease) at 54 quarter notes per minute, with a simple melody presented in ternary form.

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

Sergei Rachmaninov Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 4 E minor

zygis — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:31:41 +0000

The fourth piece is similar to the second in the quality of its performance. The fourth piece reveals resemblance to Chopin’s Revolutionary étude in the taxing left hand figure place throughout. Further it looks, sounds, and feels as if it were an improvisation on Chopin’s Prelude in G major (Op. 28, No. 3). The piece is 67 measures long, with a duration of about three minutes, and has the fastest tempo of the set, Presto (quick) at 104 quarter notes per minute, and is the shortest work in terms of playing time.

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

Sergei Rachmaninov Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 3 in B minor

zygis — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:45:12 +0000

Again, the next piece drastically differs from the previous: the continual gauntlets of number two is relieved by the third piece in the set, an “introspective rêverie [daydream].” Drawing on the previous illustration of a “generic hybrid,” this piece is described as a mixture between the song without words and funeral march genres, to create what is called the “most Russian” piece of the set, containing both sonorous bass and a solid melody, characteristics of Russian 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.

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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

Frédéric Chopin Nocturne in B major Op. 9 No. 3

zygis — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:29:05 +0000

Nocturne in B major Op. 9 No. 3 is in the ternary form A-B-A .the first section (Allegretto). The second contrasting section (Agitato) is a very dramatic one with a combined melody & counter – melody in the right hand and triplets in the left hand throughout this section which needs a great amount of virtuosity. The piece is full of coloratura ornaments, and ends with a wide chord in the left hand accompanied with (senza tempo) right hand triplets in a high octave to lead to a legatissimo smorzando adagio.

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By Vadim Chaimovich

Nocturne in B major Op. 9 No. 3 sheet music

Frédéric Chopin Nocturne in B-flat minor Op. 9 No. 1

zygis — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:14:05 +0000

Nocturne in B-flat minor Op. 9 No. 1 has a rhythmic freedom that came to characterise Chopin’s later work. The left hand has an unbroken sequence of quavers in simple arpeggios throughout the entire piece, while the right hand moves with freedom in patterns of eleven, twenty, and twenty-two notes. The opening section moves into a contrasting middle section, which flows back to the opening material in a transitional passage where the melody floats above seventeen consecutive bars of D-flat major chords. The reprise of the first section grows out of this and the nocturne concludes peacefully.

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By Vadim Chaimovich

Nocturne in B-flat minor Op. 9 No. 1 sheet music