Milestones of Musical Romanticism 6
M. Zachary Johnson
January 18, 2008
-Rachmaninoff´s Piano Music-
A series of dark, haunting piano chords, gradually growing louder, opens Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto. It leads us into the heavy low notes that make the base of the accompaniment, and then we hear that famous romantic melody played by full strings, the higher tones of the piano accompaniment swirling around it. The listener is wrapped in the sumptuous orchestral sound and carried along by the sustained, lyric melody. The emotional tone is somber yet noble, melancholy yet rapturous.
This concerto is rightly taken to be the quintessential Rachmaninoff, conveying as it does tremendously intense, passionate emotional expression, by means of a density of notes and a musical complexity that requires the listener's maximum mental capacity. As Ayn Rand stated in "The Art of Fiction," "Rachmaninoff's compositions are complex; he combines so many elements in his music that one has to stretch one's mind to hear them all at once."
Rachmaninoff's music is for both the heart and the head.
Most music unfortunately falls onto one side or the other of a dichotomy between mind and body: some is highly structured but emotionally boring (e.g., the early works of Mozart), some is viscerally powerful but crudely primitive. The great achievement of Romanticism in music was mind-body integration: it combines, on the one hand, intricate patterns, elaborate formal structure and mathematical complexity, and, on the other hand, visceral excitement, emotional power, and vivid drama. Romantic music is both mentally challenging and moving, both cognitively engaging and emotionally gripping, both intelligent and thrilling.
Rachmaninoff was one of the greatest practitioners of the romantic integration of mind and body, and he was essentially the last. The greats at the twilight of the Romantic movement included Saint-Saens, who lived until 1921, Puccini--until 1924, and Elgar--until 1934. Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was survived by only a couple of Romantic composers: Richard Strauss lived until 1949, Jean Sibelius until 1957 (their music is technically classified as post-romantic, however).
Rachmaninoff's complete recordings are available on a 10-disc set from RCA Classical, for under $90. The set includes his performances of his four piano concertos, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and the Third Symphony, with the Philadelphia Orchestra; it includes his renditions of his own solo piano works such as the Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux; it includes his arrangements of works by such composers as Kreisler, Mussorgsky, and Saint-Saens; it includes his famously original interpretations of works by other Romantic composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff's idol, Tchaikovsky.
To purchase "Rachmaninoff: The Complete Recordings" and to see other recommendations in the Milestones of Musical Romanticism series, visit:
http://www.tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=995
A series of dark, haunting piano chords, gradually growing louder, opens Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto. It leads us into the heavy low notes that make the base of the accompaniment, and then we hear that famous romantic melody played by full strings, the higher tones of the piano accompaniment swirling around it. The listener is wrapped in the sumptuous orchestral sound and carried along by the sustained, lyric melody. The emotional tone is somber yet noble, melancholy yet rapturous.
This concerto is rightly taken to be the quintessential Rachmaninoff, conveying as it does tremendously intense, passionate emotional expression, by means of a density of notes and a musical complexity that requires the listener's maximum mental capacity. As Ayn Rand stated in "The Art of Fiction," "Rachmaninoff's compositions are complex; he combines so many elements in his music that one has to stretch one's mind to hear them all at once."
Rachmaninoff's music is for both the heart and the head.
Most music unfortunately falls onto one side or the other of a dichotomy between mind and body: some is highly structured but emotionally boring (e.g., the early works of Mozart), some is viscerally powerful but crudely primitive. The great achievement of Romanticism in music was mind-body integration: it combines, on the one hand, intricate patterns, elaborate formal structure and mathematical complexity, and, on the other hand, visceral excitement, emotional power, and vivid drama. Romantic music is both mentally challenging and moving, both cognitively engaging and emotionally gripping, both intelligent and thrilling.
Rachmaninoff was one of the greatest practitioners of the romantic integration of mind and body, and he was essentially the last. The greats at the twilight of the Romantic movement included Saint-Saens, who lived until 1921, Puccini--until 1924, and Elgar--until 1934. Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was survived by only a couple of Romantic composers: Richard Strauss lived until 1949, Jean Sibelius until 1957 (their music is technically classified as post-romantic, however).
Rachmaninoff's complete recordings are available on a 10-disc set from RCA Classical, for under $90. The set includes his performances of his four piano concertos, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and the Third Symphony, with the Philadelphia Orchestra; it includes his renditions of his own solo piano works such as the Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux; it includes his arrangements of works by such composers as Kreisler, Mussorgsky, and Saint-Saens; it includes his famously original interpretations of works by other Romantic composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff's idol, Tchaikovsky.
To purchase "Rachmaninoff: The Complete Recordings" and to see other recommendations in the Milestones of Musical Romanticism series, visit:
http://www.tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=995
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