Favorite Rachmaninoff Prelude

[Nightscape]

Hey all, I thought I'd ask you a question: what's your personal favorite Rachmaninoff Prelude?  Mine's the Prelude op. 23 no.4.  It has such a beautiful melody, and very powerful climax and ending.  The ending is so simple, yet somehow still very powerful, like a sigh of relaxation.

[andyng85]

My favourite is op. 23 no.5 g-

But the one I play is op23. no.  2 B flat... it sounds awesome!

[pianiststrongbad]

Well for starters, I loved c# when i first learned it.  I can't believe he wrote that at 18.  I love all of Op. 23.  I like Op. 32, but not as much.  Some out of Op. 32 are g# min, and b min.  i really like those.  But out of 23, I like 4 a lot, I learned 5 and that was my fav for a long time, and am now working on 7- a lot easier than it sounds.  No. 2 is great in my opinion, but I think that it is one of the most difficult.  That left hand part is just nuts to play that fast in my opinion.  Either that, or I have yet to figure out a good fingering for it.  Too hard to narrow it down to one.  All such wonderful peices.

[DarkWind]

I love Op. 23, No. 7!

[liszmaninopin]

I like op. 23 #4,6,7, and 9.  Honestly, though, I love all of op. 23.

I've never cared for op. 32 all that much.

[Motrax]

For those of you who don't like Op. 32, listen to it as a set. Individually, some of them aren't so great, but as a whole they are wonderful.

Here're my favorites, in no particular order:

Op. 23 No. 4 in D major
Op. 23 No. 5 in G minor
Op. 32 No. 5 in G major
Op. 32 No. 8 in A minor
Op. 32 No. 10 in B minor
Op. 32 No. 12 in G sharp minor

And I'd like to add Etudes Op. 33 numbers 6 and 7 to the list. Number 6 is so damn catchy, it's impossible not to like it.   And number 7 is great too.

I don't know Op. 39, I've been looking for a good recording of it for a while. Any recommendations? (I don't like Lugansky or Grimaux very much).

[pianiststrongbad]

The etudes are great also.  Out of Op. 39 I like no. 5 the best, in Eb min.  I have Horowitz playing that one.  Moves me to tears everytime.

[liszmaninopin]

Yeah, the op. 39 etudes are amazing, they're my second favorite Rachmaninoff solo piano work, after the first sonata.  Of the op. 39, I like #1,2,3,5,6, and 8.  Honestly, it's an amazing set of music.

The Ashkenazy recording is very good.

[Motrax]

It's interesting you mention Ashkenazy. I've had Nikolai Lugansky playing Op. 23 for a long time, but when I got the Ashkenazy version of Op. 23, I was simply stunned at how much better it was.

Frankly, I think Ashkenazy may be one of the best for both the Preludes and Etudes of Rachmaninoff.

[Spatula]

23-5 simply because its fun to do but repeitition makes it boring, like any other piece.  I don't really care for his 32 nor his etude-tableux.

[Rob47]

op. 23 # 9 straight up.

Go to Mei Ting's website, listen to him play it. Mind boggling....such a good prelude.  Rachmaninoff's best prelude.(In my opinon)  Does he have a more techincally challenging one??!?!?!?!  And who cares how hard it is to play! Musically I've always enjoyed number 9...its intense yet calm almost? melancholic?

Your friend,
Rob