Rachmaninoff Prelude for an early intermediate pianist?

[bernadette60614]

I've become fascinated by Rachmaninoff.  I'd love to learn one of this "early intermediate"" preludes.

Any direction would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[piulento]

I don't know exactly what you mean by early intermediate, but the easiest Rachmaninoff piece I know of is his 'Morceau de Fantasie' in G minor. It was written when he was very young, and it's not very well known, but it's a very nice "first rachmaninoff piece".

(this is one of the only versions I found on youtube)

If you really want to play his preludes, try out his famous prelude in C sharp minor. I found it much "easier" than most of the others (It's still not that easy, I don't know your level so you just have to try it out yourself).
Good luck!

[visitor]

Generally rachmaniff piano pieces are inapproriate for less tham early advanced levels. Thas why they are hard to categorize as anything other than advanced
 

Texture, voicing, polyphony, inner voice melody and counter melody....all can pose sigificant challenge to les experienced pianists.

i canot really give an "easier" of the lot sugg since i hobesty dont think we ca stick his pieces in that tier

there are pieces w tha sound tha can grant access to a similar lovelyness though

ue this score is rare tooke a couple years to fund but its out there, its a short version(the long ver is better but harder) of Ruchardson's Fantasia and love its sound. Its not that hard, not easy but way less challenging tha the rachmaninoff pieces ive looked at

[visitor]

Honorable mention, solo version of the warsaw concerto can be worked on if sufficient skill and instruction are available amd w enough hard work, some at very late intermediate levels can probably reach it but its a big step above the richardson
sorry cant really offer an opinion on sergey's preludes, i feel they are all pretty hard

\*it's 'long' but the guts of the pieces are pretty standard, arpegis, few polyrhythms, etc.
i particularly like this slower tempo , feels right and probably the one of the best solo ver of this on the tube

[richardb]

Piulento,

Do you know where I could find the sheet music for this? 

I don't know exactly what you mean by early intermediate, but the easiest Rachmaninoff piece I know of is his 'Morceau de Fantasie' in G minor. It was written when he was very young, and it's not very well known, but it's a very nice "first rachmaninoff piece".

(this is one of the only versions I found on youtube)

If you really want to play his preludes, try out his famous prelude in C sharp minor. I found it much "easier" than most of the others (It's still not that easy, I don't know your level so you just have to try it out yourself).
Good luck!

[richardb]

Piulento,

Do you know where I could find the sheet music for this? 

Never mind.  I found it on IMSLP.  Sorry, I should have looked a little harder the first time.

[chopinlover01]

Check out his Op. 10. None of them are particularly easy, but those are among the easier pieces he wrote. That said, all of Rach's music is extremely difficult because of his musical writing style, as visitor noted.

[kogan]

I found the popular one in G minor 23/5 quite difficult. I think C# minor, probably op 3 no 2 could suit you fine.
Maybe if you wanna play Rachmaninov, you could try with one of his etudes tableaux, for example op. 33 no 7/8 in G minor? Not difficult, yet so satisfying.

[chopinlover01]

Maybe if you wanna play Rachmaninov, you could try with one of his etudes tableaux, for example op. 33 no 7/8 in G minor? Not difficult, yet so satisfying.

That's still a very hard piece. It's not nearly as hard as some of the other etudes, but that says nothing. The fast passages at around 2 minutes and onward are also quite hard, especially to play well. The last passage of that, a coordinated upward diminished arpeggiation, is also particularly hard to play.
Again, my recommendation is Op. 10; there's a great nocturne at the beginning, and the romance at the end is also nice.

[kogan]

I began to work on this etude about a week ago, those passages in the middle seemed to be really difficult to sightread at the beginning and I thought I overestimated myself, but when I learned them by heart I found them quite easy. But right, upward passage at the end is still challenging for me.
Still I think it's one of the easiest Rachmaninov's piece, nevertheless there are no really easy Rach's compositions which could be played by the beginners (unless they were asians). 

[ianw]

The easiest piece by Rachmaninov listed in the database at www.pianosyllabus.com is Fragments, and that goes at grade 7, so not really early intermediate.  You can have a look here:
[urlhttp://pianosyllabus.com/detail.php?ref=6925[/url]

[mjames]

Rach#C's massive difficulty lies in the A section, I seriously can't play it at all. Makes me cry. It requires an unbelievable amount of control to make it sing and sound beautiful. Everything else is pretty easy.

[visitor]

if the buy in for Sergei is too high, some of the slower stuff by Bowen might fit the bill. I really like this (i like his more difficult preludes more but of the no so crazy stuff, this is nice)

ie this is super nice but needs a little more finesse and agility even though pace as a whole is not super quick, the figurations can be sticky for some