#Rachmaninov morceaux de fantaisie

[mellowchouchou]

Rachmaninov - Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3, No. 2: Prelude in C-sharp minor “The Bells of Moscow”

performed by Idil Biret

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Legendary composer, conductor, and virtuoso pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943) makes his first public appearance as a concert pianist, at the “Moscow Electrical Exhibition” in 1892. Among other things, he performed his own “Morceaux de Fantaisie” (Op. 3) -- a then-four-part piano suite which included one of the most famous pieces he would ever compose, the “Prelude in c#.” Rachmaninoff was paid 50 rubles for this appearance. That doesn't mean much to us today... so as a point of comparison, we can note that he was paid only *40* rubles (which was still approximately two months’ worth of wages for a common factory worker in Russia at that time) by a music publisher in exchange for the *copyright* to the entire “Morceaux de Fantaisie” set. Of course, had Rachmaninoff merely held onto the copyright in the Prelude in c# *alone*, it would have made him a fortune down the line… Rachmaninoff originally conceived of the “Morceaux” as a set of four pieces, but he ended up adding a fifth piece after reading an interview which Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) granted to a Russian newspaper critic a few weeks after his debut public concert, in which he cited Rachmaninoff as one of the most outstanding young musicians in Russia. Rachmaninoff idolized Tchaikovsky, and was thrilled by this praise. As he later recounted: "I immediately sat down at the piano and composed a fifth piece (the ‘Serenade’) on the spot." Rachmaninov premiered this five-piece version of the suite at a subsequent concert appearance in December 1892, and two months later he also gave Tchaikovsky one of the first copies of the newly-published score to the set. (Tchaikovsky loved it.) PICTURED: A c. 1900 real photo postcard, showing a young Rachmaninoff as he would have appeared at the beginning of his international concert career.

[luiskolodin]

Rachmaninov - Morceaux de fantaisie, Op.3

[javierdenoriega]

S. Rachmaninov: Élégie _ Morceaux de fantaisie Op. 3 nº 1. Isabel Dombri...

[clamarcap]

Rachmaninov had big hands

Joo si duole di avere mani piccole, troppo piccole per poter eseguire il Preludio op. 3 n. 2 di Rachmaninov: ma, con l’aiuto di Igudesman, risolve brillantemente il problema. «Solo le mani sono piccole» 😀 Sergej Vasil’evič Rachmaninov (1° aprile 1873 - 28 marzo 1943): Preludio in do diesis minore per pianoforte, n. 2 dei Morceaux de fantaisie op. 3 (1892). Inciso dal compositore nel 1919 per…

[mikrokosmos]

Rachmaninoff – Morceaux de Fantaisie, op.3 (1892)

I was going to make a post only on THE prelude today, but I remembered that I also adored the elegy, and I thought I may as well talk a bit about the full suite. “Fantasy Pieces”, again following the Romantic tradition of free-form music, was written by Rachmaninoff when he was just 19. Think of that! Usually when we talk about composers who wrote great stuff early on, we think Mozart or maybe Beethoven. But still a teenager, Rachmaninoff wrote a suite of gorgeous music, one of the pieces here would become his most popular and loved [to his chagrin]. He wrote the prelude first, and then the rest of the pieces came after, and he dedicated the suite to his teacher Anton Arensky. They are the accumulation of his studies, and show a shift towards a more mature style with craftsmanship and personality. The suite is not necessarily meant to be played as a group, and so you often hear the prelude as a stand-alone work. The opening Elegy starts off like a very darkened Chopin nocturne, and the main melody is full of the expected mourning and disturbingly tragic. This kind of darkness touches in on a lot of Rachmaninoff’s music. The melody sometimes sings out in one voice, sometimes another joins in harmony. And the music isn’t afraid to take sudden harmonic shifts. The middle section has an uplifting melody in the left hand as the right hand glitters over it. After an energetic transition, we come back to the bleak soundworld of the opening, the melody an octave lower. The coda grows louder with passionate descending thirds, and then the final bars go into the bass. The prelude is the most iconic work, and its popularity transcends the rest of the suite. Rachmaninoff was bothered by it the older he got, thinking that the love for the prelude of his teen years overshadowed ‘better’ music he wrote later. But it’s popularity is understandable. It opens with octaves going deep in the bass, part of the nickname “The Bells of Moscow”. They thunder underneath a main melody made up of thick homophonic chords, that has an almost yearning quality. The middle section is made of broken notes falling over each other chromatically, and eventually grows into a frantic passage of chords before exploding into a restatement of the opening, with dense chords slamming in the bass and then the hands jump to play the melody in full chords higher up. For clarity, the music here is written across four staffs. The intensity fills the room with immense pathos. That sounds like overkill with the adjectives maybe, but it does feel like music for an existential crisis. The music calms down a bit before dying away in softer chords, the bells ring out in the distance. After the angst of the opening, we are finally given a break in the form of the “melody”, which softly plays over gorgeous accompaniment, and as with the other works you hear premonitions of mature Rachmaninoff. Using chromaticism to murk up the harmonies, holding onto a gorgeous melody that seems to exist beyond the rhythm of the music, etc. The melody organically develops into an intense passage of chords that then break out into a pretty flourish, before coming back to the opening. The fourth movement, “Punchinella”, in reference to the same Commedia dell’arte character, is whimsical and full of joy, kind of foreshadowing Ravel’s “Alborada del gracioso”, and so with dense chords the music plays around on the keyboard. The middle section again has a main melody in the left hand while the right decorates over it, again keeping in the good mood but more genuine. Then we come back to the opening with its shifting grace notes and fun rhythm. The piece ends with staccato notes across the keyboard. The final work, the Serenade, opens with the melody alone, and comes off as “exotic” music, that is it follows folk writing scales that could be Spanish. It continues the brighter spirit that the second half of the suite has been carrying, while also dazzling with piano technique. Despite being in a minor key and ending with heavy chords, it is still a ‘happy’ piece.

Movements:

1. Elegie

2. Prelude

3. Melody

4. Polichinelle

5. Serenade

Pianist: Vladimir Ashkenazy

[pastelvampyre]

30 days of practice: day 1/30 

technical exercises: i started with the sixteenth-note four-octave parallel motion scales. i got those up to 96 bpm, with the goal being minimum 120 bpm in a few weeks. the four-octave tonic four-note chords are still quite slow at about 50 bpm for the sixteenth notes. 

etude in e major, op. 299 no. 29 (czerny): i was practicing this at about 90 bpm (with the goal being minimum 116 bpm) but i was noticing that the faster that i went, the more the left hand started to lag behind. so i slowed it down to 70 bpm, carefully making sure the hands were sounding at the same time, & i’ll work up from there. 

prelude in d minor, bwv 851 (bach): my goal was mostly to work on dynamics and articulation in the first page and a half instead of continuing and trying to finish the piece. the goal today was mostly to add some varying left hand & right hand articulation in the descending chord phrases + overall dynamics and evenness of the sixteenth notes. 

sonata in b flat major, k 281 (mozart): i mostly worked on the long staccato runs in bars 12-16 of movement 1. the goal was to make the staccato ring and be clear without tensing up my wrist. the first movement is at 100 bpm per eighth note at the moment and i don’t intend to make it much faster, so the goal was mostly improving the staccato technique. 

consolation, s 172 no. 3 (liszt): for the liszt, i wanted to improve my technique all around and focus on the tone of the piece as a whole. i practiced the 4-over-3 pattern found in bars 6, 10, 22, and 26, as well as the arpeggiated 9th chords in bars 30 and 38. attention was also paid to the dolcissimo sections to try and make the right hand more legato. 

morceaux de fantaisie, op 3. no. 5 (rachmaninov): focus was on the first page of this piece. i concentrated on having a nice legato in measures 1-3, 6-8, and 11-13. i also focused on making sure that all notes in the chords sounded at exactly the same time, particularly in measures 15-26. i also tried to make sure that the beginning few bars were consistent in their dynamics, especially the pianissimo chords. 

march from “a love for three oranges”, op 33 (prokofiev): focus was on overall relaxation of the wrists during the movement between the chords. the sixteenth-note patterns in measures 7-8 were also focused on. i also learned a new section from measures 15-16. these measures have a minor 10th which my left hand cannot reach so i’ll try and figure out what to do in that section. 

“part of your world” from “the little mermaid”, arranged by phillip keveren: i was focusing mainly on dynamics and tone in this piece, particularly maintaining crescendos between the hands and not making one hand overpower the other. i also looked at the third page section after the modulation to d major, trying to maintain the fast left hand triplet rhythm underneath the octave chords despite the jumps in both. 

i also managed to film as i was playing through each of the pieces during my first or second run-through, as the “before” side to the practice challenge. 

sorry it’s long. i practice a lot. i’ll try and make further updates shorter. 

[emotionsincascades]

Rachmaninov: Morceaux de fantaisie, Op.3

[sonyclasica]

PABLO FERRÁNDEZ

REFLECTIONS

Pablo Ferrández, uno de los principales violonchelistas de su generación, lanza su álbum debut con Sony Classical el 26 de marzo.

Resérvalo AQUÍ

Uno de los talentos más carismáticos de su generación, el chelista español ganador del Premio Tchaikovsky ha sido aclamado en todo el mundo por su "magnetismo de ídolo pop y musicalidad apasionante" (L.A. Times) y como intérprete que "lo tiene todo: técnica, temple, espíritu... y encanto" (El País). Forjándose rápidamente una importante reputación, es admirado tanto por otros artistas musicales --Anne-Sophie Mutter y Gidon Kremer entre ellos-- como por el público, triunfando también en las redes sociales, donde su encanto y espontaneidad llegan a través de sus actuaciones a millones de personas en todo el mundo.

El álbum debut de Ferrández con Sony Classical, Reflections, es la presentación perfecta de este artista excepcional: Con espíritu romántico, el trabajo refleja sus raíces musicales y sorprendentes similitudes entre la música de Rusia y España a principios del siglo XX. Con Rachmaninov y sus contemporáneos españoles Casals, Granados y De Falla, el álbum desvela una mezcla evocativa de nostalgia y calidez melódica representada en la ardorosa y melodiosa “Cello Sonata” de Rachmaninov y su encantadora "Vocalise", la conmovedora canción de cuna de De Falla "Nana" y "Oriental" de las “Danzas Españolas” de Granados.

Pablo Ferrández nació en una familia amante de la música en 1991 y lleva el nombre de Pablo "Pau" Casals, el legendario chelista y uno de los músicos clásicos españoles más influyentes de todos los tiempos. Pero siempre, desde que comenzó sus estudios musicales con 13 años, sintió una afinidad especial con Rusia, especialmente con la legendaria Natalia Shakhovskaya (1925–2017) en la Escuela Musical Reina Sofía de Madrid. "Fue una artista y una mujer increíble," recuerda, "y me enseñó a amar y comprender el lenguaje de la música rusa".

Reflections, por lo tanto, representa tanto la música de la tierra natal de Ferrández como la música del país que sería tan importante en su vida. "Quería grabar piezas en las que me veo a mí mismo, que reflejan algo de mí y mis raíces. Contiene algunas de las piezas musicales más emotivas y hermosas que conozco." Un proyecto tan personal requiere un colaborador bien elegido, y Ferrández encontró al pianista ideal en Denis Kozhukhin. Su amistad se remonta a sus días de estudiantes en la Escuela de Música de la Reina Sofía. La ardorosa “Cello Sonata” compuesta por Rachmaninov en 1901 ocupa un lugar central en el programa.

El hecho de que Casals y Rachmaninov interpretaran la sonata juntos inspiró a Ferrández para crear un programa que ponga de relieve otros paralelismos musicales entre España y Rusia. El álbum incluye arreglos de chelo y piano de tres obras más cortas de Rachmaninov (incluida la cautivadora Vocalise), y piezas más cortas favoritas compuestas por De Falla y Granados, dos figuras clave de la música española de principios del siglo XX, y también contemporáneos de Rachmaninov y Casals. Ferrández rinde tributo a su genial predecesor musical en el tema final de su álbum: El famoso arreglo que Casals hizo de la canción navideña catalana "El cant dels ocells" (La canción de los pájaros).

Ferrández ha tocado en las salas de conciertos más importantes del mundo junto a directores de la talla de Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach y Daniele Gatti, y ha aparecido en conciertos de cámara con artistas como Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Vadim Repin, Yuja Wang y Khatia Buniatishvili. También ha trabajado con orquestas como la Filarmónica de Londres, LA Phil (en el Hollywood Bowl), la Orquesta Sinfónica de la Radio de Bavaria, la Filarmónica de Israel y la Filarmónica de Rotterdam.

 LISTADO DE PIEZAS

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF 1873–1943 1           “How Fair This Spot!”               No. 7 de 12 Romances op. 21               Moderato

              MANUEL DE FALLA 1876–1946 2             Nana                    Lullaby               No. 2 de Suite populaire espagnole               after No. 5 de Siete Canciones populares Españolas               Calmo e sostenuto               Arreglo: Maurice Maréchal

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF 3            Élégie                  No. 1 de Morceaux de fantaisie op. 3               Moderato               Arreglo: A. Vlasov   

              SERGEI RACHMANINOFF               Sonata para Piano y Chelo en sol menor op.  19               g-Moll · en sol menor

4                             I               Lento – Allegro moderato 5                             II              Allegro scherzando            6                             III             Andante 7                             IV            Allegro mosso                 8            Melody  No. 9 de 12 Romances op. 21               Non allegro

MANUEL DE FALLA 9            Asturiana                            No. 5 de Suite populaire espagnole               After No. 3 de Siete Canciones populares Españolas               Andante tranquillo               Arreglo: Maurice Maréchal

 SERGEI RACHMANINOFF 10          Vocalise               No. 14 de 12 Romances op. 34               Lentamente. Molto cantabile               Arreglo: Shin-Itchiro Yokoyama

              ENRIQUE GRANADOS 1867–1916 11          Orientale                             No. 2 de Danzas españolas op. 37               Andante – Più mosso ed agitato – Tempo I               Arreglo: Gregor Piatigorsky

                           Traditional 12          El cant dels ocells                             The Song of the Birds               Arreglo: Pablo Casals

  PABLO FERRÁNDEZ

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[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Legendary composer, conductor, and virtuoso pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943) makes his first public appearance as a concert pianist in 1892, at the “Moscow Electrical Exhibition.” Among other things, he performs his own “Morceaux de Fantaisie” (Op. 3) -- a then-four-part piano suite that included one of the most famous pieces he would ever compose, the “Prelude in c# minor.” Rachmaninoff was paid 50 rubles for this inaugural concert appearance. That doesn't mean much to us today, so as a point of comparison, he was only paid *40* rubles (which was approximately two months’ worth of wages for a common factory worker in Russia at that time) by his publisher for the *copyright* to the entire “Morceaux de Fantaisie” set. Had he merely held onto his copyright in the Prelude in c# minor, it would have made him a millionaire many times over by the end of his long career… Rachmaninoff originally conceived of the “Morceaux” as a set of four pieces, but he ended up adding a fifth piece after reading an interview which Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) granted to a Russian newspaper critic a few weeks after his debut public concert, specifically cited Rachmaninoff as one of the most outstanding young musicians in Russia. Rachmaninoff idolized Tchaikovsky and was thrilled by this praise. As he later recounted: "I immediately sat down at the piano and composed a fifth piece (the ‘Serenade’) for the set on the spot." Rachmaninov then premiered this final five-piece version of the "Morceaux" at a subsequent concert appearance in December 1892, and two months later he gave Tchaikovsky one of the first copies of the newly-published score to the set. Tchaikovsky loved it. PICTURED: A c. 1900 real photo postcard, showing a very young Rachmaninoff at the beginning of his career.

[rrivendell]

🎶 7 14 16 27

7: A song to drive to–”Radio One Two” by Dead Sara

14: A song that you would love played at your wedding– Me: *has playlists for everything but has never seriously considered what I’d want played at my wedding* Ummm how about “Here With Me” by the Killers? It has sweet lyrics, has a nice beat and melody for slow dancing, the music video is really creepy, it’s everything i need 

16:One of your favorite classical songs–umm the problem with this is i rarely can remember the name of classical songs but Prelude (Prelude No. 1) in C-Sharp Minor, “The Bells of Moscow” from Rachmaninov’s Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3 is one I’ve actually purchased so that probably means it’s one of my faves haha

27:A song that breaks your heart– THE MOTHERFUCKIN “BED SONG” BY AMANDA PALMER ughgghghg it’s so saaaaaad

Thank you!

ask me about muzak

[golden-brown]

(via https://open.spotify.com/track/7KR1vXgaVIicZaa1Mz19BV?si=DVvThYH2RkaOfHTKAf92IA)