(VIDEO) Rachmaninoff Prelude op.23 no.2 in B-flat major

[hakki]

[pianist1976]

Sorry for being so brief. I just want to say: good job with this difficult prelude. Some minor issues but I really enjoyed it  

P.S. Sorry for this off-topic but I think that @furtwaengler is right: let's write more in these threads in which there is a clear background and a big effort to give an artistic value and let's try to help with advises to those who are asking for them. Let's stop all of us replying to those trolling threads (such as this one linked here) that are not worth and doesn't deserve even a second of our time. I was tempted to reply to that thread but I saw that doing it is a disrespect to the forum members who really work hard. No work invested in prepare the piece and no listening to the advices = not time worth to invest on commenting. On the contrary, good work (like is this thead) must deserve at least some reply.

[hakki]

Thank you pianist1976.

I agree with you. After a lot of hard work, it is sometimes discouraging when these posts go by unnoticed, while the ones that you have mentioned get many replies.

regards,

P.S: BTW, I noticed that I liked it more, just listening to the sound through headphones without watching the video.

[birba]

I thought that was great!  This is one of the few Rachmaninov preludes I play, and your interpretation is close to mine.  Most people play it way too fast, but you really brought out the melodic line.  And the middle section was just wonderful.  I stopped playing it a while back because I always had memory problems in front of an audience!
great work!

[thalbergmad]

Reminds me of an old Richter recording I have. That is how good i think it is.

Stunning playing with all the voices clearly heard, that sometimes disappear in quicker performances.

Made my day this.

Thal

[ramseytheii]

Sorry for being so brief. I just want to say: good job with this difficult prelude. Some minor issues but I really enjoyed it  

P.S. Sorry for this off-topic but I think that @furtwaengler is right: let's write more in these threads in which there is a clear background and a big effort to give an artistic value and let's try to help with advises to those who are asking for them. Let's stop all of us replying to those trolling threads (such as this one linked here[/url]) that are not worth and doesn't deserve even a second of our time. I was tempted to reply to that thread but I saw that doing it is a disrespect to the forum members who really work hard. No work invested in prepare the piece and no listening to the advices = not time worth to invest on commenting. On the contrary, good work (like is this thead) must deserve at least some reply.

Funny, I have been thinking the same thing.  In fact, I even deleted the link you so generously and naively supplied.

It's a sad day, when people who never seem to comment in the Audition Room, only do so on the most deliberately junky recordings of standard repertoire.  So much interesting has been published this month, including chamber music, unusual solo pieces, two piano pieces, and an entire recital of interesting music.  All of these were serious, and well played, and most importantly, well-intentioned.  And yet every day, the Audition Room resembles some junkyard of banality. 

What gives, colleagues?  Don't you appreciate good music that is played well?  Don't you want to hear the piano at the best level it can be played?  Why are you the most titillated by the deliberate worst?  Why do you allow yourselves to become seduced by these pseudo-provocative Florence Foster Jenkins characters?  Don't you value your art?

Walter Ramsey


PS Nice performance of teh Rachmaninoff.

[hakki]

I thought that was great!  This is one of the few Rachmaninov preludes I play, and your interpretation is close to mine.  Most people play it way too fast, but you really brought out the melodic line.  And the middle section was just wonderful.  I stopped playing it a while back because I always had memory problems in front of an audience!
great work!

Thank you birba for the kind words. I don't like the faster versions either. It is also a problem for me to perform in public. Even the camera made me a bit nervous.

Reminds me of an old Richter recording I have. That is how good i think it is.

Stunning playing with all the voices clearly heard, that sometimes disappear in quicker performances.

Made my day this.

Thal

Oh Thal, such a big compliment! I don't know what to say. Just thank you so much.

This made my day too.

[orangesodaking]

Oh, wow! Great performance! I am not familiar with this etude (except that I have my teacher's recording of it), but it sounds magnificent!

And I apologize for commenting in threads that don't need to be commented in... I will do my best to only try to contribute to this forum now.

[go12_3]

What a wonderful rendition of this piece!  Bravo! 

[furtwaengler]

Oh man, you have got that essential Rachmaninov lyricism down, which in this piece even many commercial recordings by touring artist fail to achieve. You're middle section has got that unparalleled otherworldly transparency that I've only heard from the king of this piece, Sviatoslav Richter...and power and majesty to boot. It's really a stunning achievement. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!

[hakki]

Thank you go12_3 and furtwaengler!

In the 70s I had a Deutsche Gramoffon LP disc of Richter, playing this and 5 other preludes along with the op.18 second concerto. I can't remember the oechestra though (maybe Warsaw or Vienna)

It is clear that I am still recalling that benchmark performance, and trying to play like that.
I also think that it is the best performance of this prelude ever.

[thalbergmad]

It is clear that I am still recalling that benchmark performance, and trying to play like that.
I also think that it is the best performance of this prelude ever.

I have the same LP and it was my first experience of Rachmaninoff. I have never heard a better performance of the preludes he played, but i don't think yours is a million miles off.

Hopefully, you have more recordings to upload.

Thal