Fuck Yeah Rachmaninov!

A blog dedicated to one of the best composers to have ever lived. Feel free to submit and request me anything!

[clavierissimo]

Rachmaninov’s autograph quotation of the 2nd Piano Concerto. Boston, November 6th, 1909.

[mephistopheliszt]

Composers on Halloween!

[clavierissimo]

Rachmaninov’s autograph quotation of the 2nd Piano Concerto. Boston, November 6th, 1909.

[violapianolife-blog]

[fuckyeahrachmaninov]

Me: *messes up in rehearsal*

Me: tO PlaY a WrONg nOtE Is INsIgNifICanT; tO pLAy wIThOUt paSsIOn iS iNExcUsAbLe

[markv5]

Настроение: грустить под кустиком…

[hazelstreet]

[pianononsense]

[picdescbot]

a group of people sitting in chairs

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Rachmaninoff Symphony no.2 op.27, 3rd Movement 

So this piece is one I absolutely love. It’s the overall feeling I wanted to get across for the last scene of Chapter 16, in my phanfic A Yellow Rose in Box Five. I just find it so lovely and calming, while also being very passionate and sentimental. It tells a whole story without any words, which imo is the best thing music can do. I hope you enjoy.

[eggiwegsandtoast]

I think I’m finally entering my Shostakovich phase

[rue-scribe-siren-deactivated201]

Rachmaninoff Symphony no.2 op.27, 3rd Movement 

So this piece is one I absolutely love. It’s the overall feeling I wanted to get across for the last scene of Chapter 16, in my phanfic A Yellow Rose in Box Five. I just find it so lovely and calming, while also being very passionate and sentimental. It tells a whole story without any words, which imo is the best thing music can do. I hope you enjoy.

[revolt-lution]

accurate representation of how fast I’m gonna have to write during my exams :(

[classyhustleronline-deactivated]

[lunasong365]

An anecdote from Harpo Marx, from his book Harpo Speaks! Hollywood, 1931: My little bungalow in the Garden of Allah was a peaceful retreat. It was the best place to practice (harp) I ever had–until a piano player moved into a bungalow across from mine and shattered the peace. I was looking forward to a solid weekend of practice, without interruptions, when my new neighbor started to bang away. I couldn’t hear anything below a forte on the harp. There were no signs the piano banging was going to stop. It only got more overpowering. This character was warming up for a solid weekend of practice too. I went to the office to register a complaint. One of us had to go, I said, and it wasn’t going to be me because I was there first. But the management didn’t see it my way. The new guest, whose playing was driving me nuts, was Sergei Rachmaninoff. They were not about to ask him to move. I was flattered to have such a distinguished neighbor, but I still had to practice. So I got rid of him my own way. I opened the door and all the windows in my place and began to play the first four bars of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor, over and over, fortissimo. Two hours later my fingers were getting numb. But I didn’t let up, not until I heard a thunderous crash of notes from across the way, like the keyboard had been attacked with a pair of sledge hammers. Then there was silence. This time it was Rachmaninoff who went to complain. He asked to be moved to another bungalow immediately, the farthest possible from that dreadful harpist. Peace returned to the Garden. I didn’t really know until much later how sharp my intuition had been. I found out the great pianist and composer detested his Prelude in C-sharp Minor. He considered it a very Minor piece of work. He was haunted by it everywhere he went, by students who butchered it and by audiences who clamored for it, and he wished he’d never written it. After playing the damned thing nonstop for two hours I knew exactly how he felt.

[mikrokosmos]

Top 25 Favorite Composers

No.8: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1 April 1873 - 28 March 1948)

People like to nickname him one of the “Last of the Romantics” which in itself is such a Romanticizing gesture. It’s easy to get caught up in the pretty melodies that get stuck in your head, music that was beloved by the Golden Age of Hollywood and was used as a model for dramatic and gorgeous scores. But this association with the popular crowd was enough for critics to shrug him off as being too “easy”, “too many melodies” [whatever *that* means], saccharine and popular for the “wrong” reasons. It’s unfortunate that this was the kind of attitude that he was shown in his life, because it wasn’t until after his death that his music was judged more fairly, and it’s greatness, craftsmanship, musicality, honesty were recognized. That seems to be the case for many composers. I don’t consider Rachmaninoff to be born in the wrong era. I think his music is an extension of Russian Romantic aesthetics commenting on current trends. There is jazz, there is rhythmic displacement, there are unique harmonic progressions, there is attention to detail and architecture. Of course the melodies and the sentimentality is great too, but it’s wrong to reduce this composer to *just* those melodies. My favorite works by him are his piano concertos, his symphonies, his piano sonatas, the cello sonata, and the Orthodox mass “All Night Vigil”.

[clavierissimo]

Happy birthday to Rachmaninov!

[tideland-blues]

S. V. Rachmaninov