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Rachmaninov: 13 Preludes, Op. 32 / Kreisler: Liebesleid and Liebesfreud

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Rachmaninov: 13 Preludes, Op. 32 / Kreisler: Liebesleid and Liebesfreud

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Sergey Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943) Thirteen Preludes, Op. 32 Kreisler (arr. Rachmaninov) Liebesleid Liebesfreud Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninov was born at...

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Sergey Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943)

Thirteen Preludes, Op. 32

Kreisler (arr. Rachmaninov) Liebesleid

Liebesfreud

Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninov was born at Semyonovo in 1873. His family, one of strong military traditions on both his father's and mother's side, was well-to-do, but the extravagance of his father made it necessary to sell off much of their land. Rachmaninov's childhood was spent largely at the one remaining family estate at Oneg, near Novgorod. The reduction in family circumstances had at least one happier result. When it became necessary to sell the estate at Oneg and to move to St. Petersburg, the expense of education for the Imperial service proved too great. Rachmaninov could make use, instead, of his musical gifts, entering St. Petersburg Conservatory at the age of nine as a scholarship student.

Not a particularly industrious student and lacking the attention that he needed at home, in 1885 Rachmaninov failed his general subject examinations at the Conservatory and there were threats that his scholarship would be withdrawn. His mother, now separated from his father and responsible for the boy's welfare, arranged that he should move to Moscow to study with Zverev, a teacher of known strictness. In Zverev's house, however uncongenial the strict routine, he acquired much of his phenomenal technique as a pianist, while broadening his musical understanding by attending concerts in the city. At the age of fifteen he became a pupil of Zverev's former pupil Ziloti at the Conservatory, studying counterpoint and harmony with Sergey Taneyev and Arensky. His growing interest in composition led to a quarrel with Zverev and removal to the house of his relations, the Satins.

In 1891 Rachmaninov completed his piano studies at the Conservatory and the composition of his first piano concerto. The following year he graduated from the composition class and composed his notorious Prelude in C sharp minor, a piece that was to haunt him by its excessive popularity. His early career brought initial success as a composer, halted by the failure of his first symphony, conducted badly by Glazunov, apparently drunk at the time, and reviewed in the cruellest terms by Cesar Cui who described it as a student attempt to depict in music the seven plagues of Egypt. Rachmaninov busied himself as a conductor, signing a contract with the Mamontov opera company. As a composer, however, he suffered from the poor reception of his symphony and was only enabled to continue after a course of treatment with Dr. Nikolay Dahl, a believer in the efficacy of hypnotism. The immediate result was the second of his four piano concertos.

The years before the Russian revolution brought continued successful activity as a composer and as a conductor. In 1902 Rachmaninov married Natalya Satina and went on to pursue a career that brought him increasing international fame.

There were journeys abroad and a busy professional life, from which summer holidays at the estate of lvanovka, which he finally acquired from the Satins in 1910, provided respite.

All this was interrupted with the abdication of the Tsar in 1917 and the beginning of the revolution.

Rachmaninov left Russia in 1917. From then until his death in Beverley Hills in 1943, he was obliged to rely largely on performance for a living. Now there was very much less time for composition, as he undertook demanding concert tours, during which he dazzled audiences in Europe and America with his remarkable powers as a pianist. His house at lvanovka was destroyed in the Russian civil war, and in 1931, the year of the Corelli Variations, his music was banned in Russia, to be permitted once more two years later. He spent much time in America, where there were lucrative concert tours, but established a music publishing house in Paris and built for himself a villa near Lucerne, where he completed his Paganini Rhapsody in 1934 and his Third Symphony a year later. In 1939 he left Europe to spend his final years in the United States.

The first set of Preludes, published in 1903 as Op. 23, begins a series that, with the thirteen Preludes of the later Op. 32, completed in 1910, makes use of all major and minor keys, with the exception of C Sharp Minor, already claimed by the Op. 10 Prelude in that key. The procession of keys, however, lacks the logic of Chopin's similar work. The thirteen Preludes of Opus 32 open in a dramatic C major, followed by a gentle Siciliano rhythm in the second Prelude, in B fiat minor. A histrionic E major Prelude is followed by the increasing brilliance of its successor, in E minor. Relatively tranquil lyrical moments continue to alternate with the passionate or dramatic, as the series unfolds, reaching what some have regarded as its height in the tenth Prelude, in B minor. The mood subsides to a lilting B major, a singing G sharp minor and a final D fiat major, a positive and optimistic answer to the Slav melancholy perceived in its isolated earlier counterpart in C sharp minor.

To transcribe a work of Fritz Kreisler is a case of the transcriber transcribed, since the Austrian violinist was an adept at the art, although some of his transcriptions were, in fact, original compositions, as was later revealed.

The celebration of the joys and sorrows of love, described as old Viennese dances, seems to be original Kreisler.

Rachmaninov, however, with the possibilities of the piano in front of him, makes of both compositions works of much greater complexity, demanding more of the player than Kreisler had done of the violinist. The first of the two, in particular, is much extended.

Idil Biret

Born in Ankara, Idil Biret began piano lessons at the age of three. She displayed an outstanding gift for music and graduated from the Paris Conservatoire with three first prizes when she was fifteen. She studied piano with Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff, and composition with Nadia Boulanger.

Since the age of sixteen Idil Biret has performed in concerts around the world playing with major orchestras under the direction of conductors such as Monteux, Boult, Kempe, Sargent, de Burgos, Pritchard, Groves and Mackerras. She has participated in the festivals of Montreal, Persepolis, Royan, La Rochelle, Athens, Berlin, Gstaad and Istanbul. She was also invited to perform at the 85th birthday celebration of Wilhelm Backhaus and at the 90th birthday celebration of Wilhelm Kempff.

Idil Biret received the Lily Boulanger Memorial Fund award (1954/1964), the Harriet Cohen/Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal (1959) and the Polish Artistical Merit Award (1974) and was named Chevalier de l'Ordre du Merite in 1976.

Disc 1

13 Preludes, Op. 32

(more info)

Composed by: Sergei Rachmaninov Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Dmitry Paperno, piano
Benno Moiseiwitsch, piano
Ethella Chuprik, piano
Rustem Hayroudinoff, piano
Earl Wild, piano
Eldar Nebolsin, piano
John Browning, piano
Idil Biret, piano
Benjamin Moser, piano
Recording date: 2 August 1940

No. 1 in C major: Allegro vivace - 1:19
No. 2 in B flat minor: Allegretto - 4:10
No. 3 in E major: Allegro vivace - 3:02
No. 4 in E minor: Allegro con brio - 5:56
No. 5 in G major: Moderato - 3:23
No. 6 in F minor: Allegro appassionato - 1:30
No. 7 in F major: Moderato - 2:56
No. 8 in A minor: Vivo - 1:46
No. 9 in A major: Allegro moderato - 3:01
No. 10 in B minor: Lento - 7:27
No. 11 in B major: Allegretto - 2:10
No. 12 in G sharp minor: Allegro - 2:20
No. 13 in D flat major: Grave - Allegro - 7:09

Liebesleid (arr. S. Rachmaninov)

(more info)

Composed by: Sergei Rachmaninov
Sequeira Costa, piano
Ethella Chuprik, piano
Idil Biret, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Fritz Kreisler, violin
Recording date: 11-20 January 1993

Liebesleid (arr. S. Rachmaninov) - 5:11

Liebesfreud (arr. S. Rachmaninov)

(more info)

Composed by: Sergei Rachmaninov
Peter Nagy, piano
Idil Biret, piano
Fritz Kreisler, violin
Recording date: October 1989 / October 1990

Liebesfreud (arr. S. Rachmaninov) - 6:57

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Composer(s):
Rachmaninov, Sergei

Artist(s):
Biret, Idil; Kreisler, Fritz

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099046626
Item Number: 8550466
Release Date: May 17, 1991