Rachmaninoff Concertos

[fyrexia]

Ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｉｓ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｆａｖｏｒｉｔｅ，　ｉ　ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｌｙ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｒａｃｈ３。

[phil13]

Error.

Half of the choices and your entire message are gone.

Phil

[invictious]

Rach 2 for me.

[jacobwynn]

At various times over the years, I've chosen each of these wonderful works.

I've always had a soft spot for 1, 3 is a powerhouse of emotions, 4 is subtle in its harmonies and rhythms, PR is probably the one that best hangs together stucturally, but 2 is the one I come back to again and again with increased joy.

[clavicembalisticum]

Ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｉｓ　ｙｏｕｒ　ｆａｖｏｒｉｔｅ，　ｉ　ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｌｙ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｒａｃｈ３。

Without doubt, the most balanced of his works for piano and orchestra is the Rhapsody. Without doubt, the most cohere work, pianistically speaking, is the Third Piano Concerto, where a lot of ideas of the Second are getting further unleashed to their full expressive power. As for the 4th concerto, I believe that the cuts he ended making because of the "public's opinion" whether they were coming from his "peers" or not ended up downgrading the piece.

Interesting is the revision of his First Piano Concerto. There, the experience after a couple of more has led to a much more cohere whole without sacrificing anything of the youthful melodic messages. As for the Second Concerto, it is the best prelude of what was coming afterwards.

It is not by chance that the 2nd and 3rd piano concertos have eclipsed other works of the repertoire like the Scharwenka 2nd, Rubinstein's 4th and set others into relative oblivion like Tchaikovsky's 2nd (yes the second).

There are many people who have literally battled against the structural coherence and the ideas of the Third Piano Concerto, to the point where some put forward that it is only a virtuosic rewrite of the Second, which is obviously not.

The problem with that is that it should have had a title like: Symphony for Piano and Orchestra. Too bad that the multitude of performers after it usually go after it only for the virtuosic display undermining the work's symphonic layout.

Of all his piano - related works, this is one of those that always has me thinking. A beautiful marriage between sheer, overwhelming emotion and deep thought.