Sergel Rachhmaninoff was born on this day in 1873. 4/1/1873. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1 April 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a personal style notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness and his use of rich orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoffs compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Rachmaninoff ranked among the finest pianists of his time, along with Leopold Godowsky, Ignaz Friedman, Moriz Rosenthal, Josef Lhevinne, and Josef Hofmann and he was famed for possessing a clean and virtuosic technique. His playing was marked by precision, rhythmic drive, notable use of staccato and the ability to maintain clarity when playing works with complex textures. Rachmaninoff applied these qualities in music by Chopin, including the B flat minor Piano Sonata. Rachmaninoffs repertoire, excepting his own works, consisted mainly of standard 19th Century virtuoso works plus music by Bach, Beethoven, Borodin, Debussy, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff possessed extremely large hands, with which he could easily maneuver through the most complex chordal configurations. His left hand technique was unusually powerful. His playing was marked by definition—where other pianists playing became blurry-sounding from overuse of the pedal or deficiencies in finger technique, Rachmaninoffs textures were always crystal clear. Only Josef Hofmann and Josef Lhevinne shared this kind of clarity with him. All three men had Anton Rubinstein as a model for this kind of playing—Hofmann as a student of Rubinsteins, Rachmaninoff from hearing his famous series of historical recitals in Moscow while studying with Zverev, and Lhevinne from hearing and playing with him. The two pieces Rachmaninoff singled out for praise from Rubinsteins concerts became cornerstones for his own recital programs. The compositions were Beethovens Appassionata and Chopins Funeral March Sonata. He may have based his interpretation of the Chopin sonata on Rubinsteins. Rachmaninoff biographer Barrie Martyn points out similarities between written accounts of Rubinsteins interpretation and Rachmaninoffs audio recording of the work.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:56:04 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015