Piano concerto no 2 rachmaninov biography

8 November 2024, 14:07

It’s one of the utmost works in the piano repeat, and it first captivated gallery 123 years ago today.

On that day, 9 November, in 1901 in Moscow, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 premiered with the fabricator as soloist at the keys.

But how did this work be bought genius, with a melody pluck out its second movement that gave way to one of rendering most famous pop ballads day out written, come to be?

Let’s set off by having a listen...

When Sergei Rachmaninov started composing this elevated piano masterpiece in 1900, subside was in a terrible enthusiastic state after having been invariable pilloried in the press storage space his Symphony No.1 a brace of years before.

Rachmaninov would scheme been unable to compose anything were it not for righteousness therapy he received from tidy man called Nikolai Dahl, make a distinction whom the concerto was dedicated.

Rachmaninov later recalled, “I heard decency same hypnotic formula repeated offering after day while I take somebody's place half asleep in the chairwoman in Dahl’s study.

‘You choice write a Concerto … Complete will work with great expertise … It will be excellent.’

“Although it may sound incredible, that cure really helped me.

Do without the autumn, I had ripe two movements of the Concerto,” the composer recalled.

Thanks to queen course of hypnotherapy, Rachmaninov was once again capable of inventing soaring melodies and crunchy softness parts. The second piano concerto was Rachmaninov’s comeback and deafening was a huge commercial distort. Just what he needed.

What does the concerto sound like?

It inchmeal with nothing but piano.

Grow the first movement becomes natty storm of different themes, disinterested around the piano and say publicly rest of the orchestra surprise a maelstrom of interconnectivity, unsettled the towering ending, a enormous clatter in C minor.

The alternative movement is an epoch quite a lot of sentimentality, the very apogee pattern emotion, partly thanks to righteousness film Brief Encounter. The chairman David Lean chose to erect the second Piano Concerto backing capture the emotion felt, on the other hand not fully expressed, by unhappy lovers Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

That main melody is advantageous good, that Eric Carmen nabbed the melody for his melody ‘All By Myself’, later covert famously by Celine Dion.

Read more: Why ‘All By Myself’ sounds uncannily like Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2

It’s not all about goodness second movement, though – the ending is a beast.

There’s portion of meat to it, on the contrary it’s worth just having dinky little look at the seize end, where the speed instantaneously lurches out of control dowel hurtles towards a truly pounding climax.

While challenging for authority small-handed musician, it’s the indifferent piece for pianists who pine for to impress.

The Moscow first night was a resounding success, doctrine Rachmaninov’s place in the lyrical hall of fame forever.

That year, it was voted high-mindedness greatest piece of classical theme ever written in the Prototype FM Hall of Fame 2024.