{"id":9701,"date":"2019-02-06T11:09:39","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T11:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/?p=9701"},"modified":"2019-02-08T17:02:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T17:02:35","slug":"huangci-rachmaninoff-preludes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/albums\/huangci-rachmaninoff-preludes-9701\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Huangci’s Complete Perspective: The Rachmaninoff Preludes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pianist Claire Huangci, winner of the Geza Anda Competition 2018, just played in New York celebrating the launch of her new Rachmaninoff Preludes album on Berlin Classics. Like her complete Chopin Nocturnes album before that – for the same label – the complete Rachmaninoff 24 Preludes has been received with great acclaim internationally. Piano Street asked the ever touring pianist a few questions about her latest release.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Patrick Jovell: Claire, is it a coincidence that you manage to get such overwhelming response on two albums containing complete works in a compositional genre by two immensely popular piano composers? The Chopin Nocturnes<\/a> ranges from Op. 9 to Op. 72 and the Rachmaninoff<\/a>\u2019s Preludes Op. 3 to 32. The musical life span you have to grasp as an interpreter must be enormous and very challenging?<\/em><\/p>\n

Claire Huangci: That\u2019s exactly the reason I record these great \u2018cycles\u2019 of works. For me, deciding on what to record is completely different from deciding on a concert program. I really want to be able to tell a story, give a detailed impression on my take of a composer or a particular theme and the best way to do that is follow their compositional evolution through a specific genre. It is a challenge but I find it immensely rewarding!<\/p>\n

PJ: Can you tell us about the preparation process for the Rachmaninoff Preludes recording? What happens during such a journey?<\/em><\/p>\n

CH: It\u2019s basically immersion therapy; in the weeks-months prior to the recording, i found myself listening to Rachmaninoff constantly-all but the preludes. I was glad to discover motifs from his concertos, symphonies, hidden away in the preludes. It was about understanding his compositions on a grander scale, seeing how his style evolved. Something else I always do is try to understand the life of a composer and in this case, I found a great book, called Rachmaninoff\u2019s recollections told to Oskar von Riemann. This is basically an autobiography and it showed me a new side of Rachmaninoff as a person that would greatly influence all my future interpretations. From the purely technical side, playing the preludes takes immense stamina; playing them at least once through each day was a challenge in itself. After the recording, I couldn\u2019t feel my arms for a week (laughs).<\/p>\n

PJ: Many know you as a creative and versatile Chopin player and you are used to different concert assignments everywhere you go, but we all know that Rachmaninoff had very big hands. How do you deal with this technical reality in his music?<\/em><\/p>\n

CH: This was a particularly difficult challenge… Rachmaninoff\u2019s span was almost twice mine! But he was also a very pianistic composer and his music allows room for a lot of flexibility in terms of sharing things between the hands, re-aligning and rolling larger chords. I had to really get creative to ensure that I played all the notes!<\/p>\n

PJ: So, in your opinion, which are the fundamental differences between Op. 23 and Op. 32?<\/em><\/p>\n

CH: I believe that the two sets of preludes express the best of Rachmaninoff\u2019s compositional styles. While op. 23 is a \u2018hit parade\u2019 with lush melodies and swooning harmonic changes, op. 32 is full of daring experimentation. Rachmaninoff began to make first steps into \u2018modernizing\u2019 his music as well as making forays in the baroque direction and with Sicilian rhythms. Both sets are unique and together, they show just how versatile a composer Rachmaninoff was.<\/p>\n