"Tears" from Rachmaninoff's Suite no.1 for 2 pianos

[wzkit]

Recorded in June 2000. There're some errors here - both musical and technical (e.g. the unintended pause at the beginning). Comments are very much welcome

[mwhite]

Thirteen downloads and no comments???  I'll be glad to comment.  I love this piece.  It's hard enough to play one part let alone two!  You did a fine job in my opinion.
Mike White

[wzkit]

Thirteen downloads and no comments???  I'll be glad to comment.  I love this piece.  It's hard enough to play one part let alone two!  You did a fine job in my opinion.
Mike White

Thanks! People don't really comment much around here actually . Anyway its tough coordinating the playing of two persons, more so if your styles are actually very different. In this case, the difficulty is trying to play together despite the rubato. Not at all an easy task!

[crazy for ivan moravec]

great playing! i agree it's hard work to really sound as one and i think both of you achieved this so well... i don't know how you do it and i can't even get the Romance you posted before out of my mind. that Romance was even  more unbelievable actually... beats any other duo i've heard.

this recording sounds like "tears" from rachmaninoff's eyes... rachmaninoff the exile!

[wzkit]

great playing! i agree it's hard work to really sound as one and i think both of you achieved this so well... i don't know how you do it and i can't even get the Romance you posted before out of my mind. that Romance was even  more unbelievable actually... beats any other duo i've heard.

this recording sounds like "tears" from rachmaninoff's eyes... rachmaninoff the exile!

You're too kind..I think the recording of Tears is acceptable, hardly "great" . But I would agree that I very much preferred the recording(s) of the Romance...much more "chemistry" and a meeting of minds with my partner(s) there, plus the fact that my partner(s) had a tone which really complemented my own, in terms of balance and dynamic range. For Tears, the basic idea was there, but the execution was somewhat flawed - for example the climax could have been much more powerful, but somehow that fortissimo just didn't come through.

When it comes to 2 piano playing, its really an art to play freely yet sound together. Sometimes its really a matter of making choices in rubato which are logical and predictable for the other partner, yet sound fresh to the audience. In this recording, the basic tempo is actually fairly steady. I tend to practice with my partner in strict tempo initially (limiting expression to changes in dynamics), and only experimenting with the rubato later on.

For those who are curious about the recordings of the Romance from Suite no.2 I posted here previously, here they are:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,14642.0.html
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,14169.0.html
 
Enjoy, and keep those comments coming!

[gruffalo]

wow, yet again i am very impressed. i voted you for the Best Recordings thing because of your Romance. You and your partner are very good. Im thinking of learning La nuit, L'amour, but i need to find a partner to do it aswell.

Overall excellent. I actually prefer your recordings to the recordings of Ashkenazy.

Gruff

[wzkit]

wow, yet again i am very impressed. i voted you for the Best Recordings thing because of your Romance. You and your partner are very good. Im thinking of learning La nuit, L'amour, but i need to find a partner to do it aswell.

Overall excellent. I actually prefer your recordings to the recordings of Ashkenazy.

Gruff

Thanks much. Its a pity, but after graduating I've found it impossible to record 2 piano works, due to a lack of venues and/or partners. So I can understand your problem about finding good partners for La nuit, L'amour.

In any case, what are you favourite recordings of this work? My top three would be Argerich/Rabinovitch, Lyubov Bruk/Mark Taimanov, and Howard Shelley/Hilary McNamara.

[gruffalo]

i have the video of Argerich and Rabinovitch (suite no.2), i have a Audio CD of Ashkenazy and Previn, so i dont have much to compare with. there are different things that i like about both of their performances, so i dont know which is my favourite. i have preferences on individual pieces from the 2nd suite from both, but as a whole i am still not sure. The only suite no.1 i have is Ashkenazy and Previn.

As for findind a partner, i am not yet in conservatoire. im 17, but im doing my auditions next year, so hopefully i will find someone in one of the piano group classes. but im going to be rather picky. its not going to be who i think is technically the best or most impressive, its going to have to be someone who i connect with and work similarly, musically. Before i had the teacher i do now, my accuracy was appauling, yet people would still congratulate me, over other performers who would play with really good accuracy. i hope to see the same in someone else.

[Derek]

Thank you so much for posting this. I've never heard this piece before. Its so gorgeous...I adore Rachmaninov so completely...lol sorry for my effusiveness

[wzkit]

Thank you so much for posting this. I've never heard this piece before. Its so gorgeous...I adore Rachmaninov so completely...lol sorry for my effusiveness

If you like Tears, you might love the Romance from Suite no.2 even more! D

[gruffalo]

Can i ask what recording equipment and mics you use? im researching to buy some gear myself, and your recordings always sound great.

Gruff

[wzkit]

Can i ask what recording equipment and mics you use? im researching to buy some gear myself, and your recordings always sound great.

Gruff

My equipment for the solo recordings are 2 AKG 451s and 2 AKG 4000s, coupled with a TASCAM DAT recorder and an analog mixer (can't remember the name). The 2 piano recordings were recording using MiniDisc technology nearly 6 years ago, and I can't remember the names of the microphones and mixers

[g_s_223]

As a matter of interest, what instruments are being played?

I have the Hyperion Shelley/MacNamara recording, and from a technical standpoint I think it is one of the finest sounding piano recordings I have ever heard; musically, it's absolutely excellent too.

Comments on your performance later...

[wzkit]

The pianos were both 7 foot Ibachs ("Richard Strauss" F-215 I think). Wonderful pianos with a sustaining, singing treble, though admittedly these recordings do not capture the piano at their best shape.

I wonder if the Prague Piano Duo have recorded Suite no.1. They do a wonderful job on Suite no.2 and the Symphonic Dances, particularly in the more lyrical pieces, such as the Romance. See my thread on the Romance for more details on that performance

[g_s_223]

Well, having listened to it, I think it's a very good performance and a worthy interpretation. Around 2'30" the tempo has accelerated a bit more than necessary arguably - you can raise tension in strict tempo with dynamics and phrasing. Regardless, you can be proud! 

[wzkit]

Well, having listened to it, I think it's a very good performance and a worthy interpretation. Around 2'30" the tempo has accelerated a bit more than necessary arguably - you can raise tension in strict tempo with dynamics and phrasing. Regardless, you can be proud! 

Thanks!

[henrah]

Simply beautiful Wzkit. I have never heard this piece before, so I cannot say much on interpretation; but it is still marvelous in my mind.

Thankyou for the lovely imagery,
Henrah

Btw, I absolutely LOVE the part at 4mins 30....it's such a nice resolve!!!!

[wzkit]

Simply beautiful Wzkit. I have never heard this piece before, so I cannot say much on interpretation; but it is still marvelous in my mind.

Thankyou for the lovely imagery,
Henrah

Btw, I absolutely LOVE the part at 4mins 30....it's such a nice resolve!!!!

Glad you liked it! By the way, do check out my recording of the Romance from Suite no.2! Personally I prefer that piece to Tears

[Derek]

lol you're like darn people are commenting on THIS piece what the heck.   no actually I really think "Tears" has a special atmosphere to it. ALMOST minimalist but not quite. I've never heard anything like it. Its not the minimalist characteristic that makes it unique...I can't quite put my finger on it but Rachmaninov really happened upon something wonderful with this piece.

I will never...ever...understand people who feel the Romantic idiom has been exhausted. EVery time I feel like I personally have heard everything, I hear another piece like this one that just blows me away. Whenever this happens it is almost never a quantifiable characteristic such as polytonality or rhythm or what not, it is something unknowable and unspeakable that makes it unique. 

What do you bet there were all kinds of critics and so forth running around right before Rachmaninov saying it had all been done?  Fools!

[wzkit]

Yeah..heh..I do think Romance was the better effort of the two. But seriously Tears has its own beauty too. The main difficulty for me was precisely the minimalism - with the repeated motifs and patterns, how does one make it interesting, without sounding mannered or that one is trying too hard? I had to experiment with all kinds of voicing, pedalling, rubato etc, but right now, my instinct seems to be that the simpler and more direct the better! This recording is a little too mannered for my tastes now. If I were to play it again, I would play it in a much more straightforward manner.

As for your comment about Romanticism, I completely agree with you! For me, yjr Romantic idiom is just so natural, just so instinctive to human expression (or at least my idea of expression), that I simply cannot understand the outright rejection of it in the 20th century. I sometimes wonder for example, how one could not listen to the third movement of Rach's Second Symphony and yet not be moved! Music to me is about the communication of deep feeling, and it should never be overly intellectualized and academic. It is no surprise that with the trend towards atonality, and dry intellectualism in "classical" music (used in a very broad sense of the term), the art form has been on a gradual decline in the past century. What would you expect given when it has become a dry academic exercise and lost relevance to people's lives and innermost feelings?