Composer: Sergey Rachmaninov
Performer: Claire Huangci
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Berlin Classics
Catalogue: 0301075BC
Release: 2018
Size: 1.21 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
5 Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3 no. 2
01. Prelude in C-Sharp Minor
10 Preludes, Op. 23
02. No. 1: Prelude in F-Sharp Minor – Largo
03. No. 2: Prelude in B-Flat Major – Maestoso
04. No. 3: Prelude in D Minor – Tempo di Minuetto
05. No. 4: Prelude in D Major – Andante Cantabile
06. No. 5: Prelude in G Minor – Alla Marcia
07. No. 6: Prelude in E-Flat Major – Andante
08. No. 7: Prelude in C Minor – Allegro
09. No. 8: Prelude in A-Flat Major – Allegro Vivace
10. No. 9: Prelude in E-Flat Minor – Presto
11. No. 10: Prelude in G-Flat Major – Largo
13 Preludes, Op. 32
12. No. 1: Prelude in C Major – Allegro Vivace
13. No. 2: Prelude in B-Flat Minor – Allegretto
14. No. 3: Prelude in E Major – Allegro Vivace
15. No. 4: Prelude in E Minor – Allegro con Brio
16. No. 5: Prelude in G Major – Moderato
17. No. 6: Prelude in F Minor – Allegro Appassionato
18. No. 7: Prelude in F Major – Moderato
19. No. 8: Prelude in A Minor – Vivo
20. No. 9: Prelude in A Major – Allegro Moderato
21. No. 10: Prelude in B Minor – Lento
22. No. 11: Prelude in B Major – Allegretto
23. No. 12: Prelude in G-Sharp Minor – Allegro
24. No. 13: Prelude in D-Flat Major – Grave – Allegro – Grave
Following on from her last, highly-acclaimed release of all of Chopin’s Nocturnes, the Chinese-American pianist Claire Huangci now takes on the next pianistic giant from the other end of the Romantic spectrum: Sergey Rachmaninov and his 24 Preludes.
Claire Huangci explains that in recent years she has felt herself more and more attracted by entire cycles of works, “in order to better understand the longer spans of an individual composer’s life.” In the case of Rachmaninov and his 24 Preludes from three opus numbers, the challenge is very interesting, since he composed them over a period of 18 years. In 1892 Rachmaninov laid the foundation stone with the Prelude in C sharp minor op. 3 no. 2, which soon became one of his best known works. “If we are to fully appreciate the psychology of the prelude, then let us agree that its function is not to express a mood, but to precipitate it.” If we transpose that concept to all of Rachmaninov’s Preludes, then this statement makes it clear that the diversity of emotions that Rachmaninov wished to convey was vast. The 10 Preludes op. 23 of 1903 and the 13 Preludes op. 32 of 1910 complete the double dozen and clearly outline the Russian composer’s evolving intentions: “You can hear the transition. Rachmaninov’s music became more complex, more contrapuntal; it became harmonically more interesting and more exciting,” according to pianist Alexis Weissenberg.