#etudes-tableaux

[moontourism]

Visit Original Link

Sergei Rachmaninoff | Étude-tableau in E-flat minor, Op. 39, No. 5

Nikolai Lugansky, piano

[mikrokosmos]

Rachmaninoff - Études-Tableaux op. 33 (1914)

The title of “study pictures” is interesting because these works aren’t all programatic. Some are given nicknames, but for the most part they are abstract. Perhaps the “pictures” is closer to abstract paintings? Each study is both for technical practice and also for experimenting with pianistic technique, methods, textures, etc. And despite the dry sounding introduction I just wrote, these pieces are gorgeous underrated gems in Rachmaninoff’s oeuvre. I hadn’t given them a chance until a few months ago, and I’ve been in love with them since. The first one opens like an old fashioned military march, with one melody sticking in the beat, and a second melody coming in just off the beat. Just before the work ends, we get a new rhythm that is inserted as a new staff in the middle, and the three different ideas are woven together, bell like notes come down in the right hand giving it a dreamy atmosphere. The piece ends simply, in quiet unison. The second opens with a jittery pattern that plays under a pretty melody, something you could whistle in the streets. It is sung in duet between the right and left hands around the jittering connective tissue. It ends with large delicate rolled chords under a long trill. The third opens with a menacing shadow, and sounds like it could be from a long lost piano concerto. Which is probably why Rachmaninoff would later repurpose it as the slow movement of his fourth concerto. A long melody glides among rich arpeggios. The fourth opens with fifths, goes into another marching theme, and includes large chords. It has a folksy feel to it, but chromatic harmonies give off a sense of something more sinister. Soon it grows into something more virtuosic and stormy. The main theme jumps around in octaves at a moderate pace, where it’s easy not to notice just how difficult this music is. It closes with the same open fifths. The next piece opens solemnly, and then erupts into a flurry of notes. It turns into a dance-toccata, reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov’s flight of the bumblebee, with even more “operatic” drama. It is the most challenging etude to play. Afterward comes my personal favorite etude; a joyous dance that’s like fair music. Sneaky “Russian” sounding chromatic runs don’t come off sinister here, they’re tongue-in-cheek. Large chords and a fast rhythm turn into a fun pianistic spectacle. The next etude opens almost opposite, a pattern that feels like a barcarolle. And sure enough a mournful melody sings over it. It is later elaborated with full harmony in the chords. Then it transitions into another dramatic storm of notes, throwing us into two arpeggios that modulate into unusual harmonies. A small transition takes us back into the main song, but the work ends with another flourish that is a direct quote from the coda of Chopin’s first ballade. The last etude opens with massive chords, again bringing us into the “concerto” sound world, and it is dominated by these relentless chords, and later a melody is cut apart and played in different octaves, almost pointilist, while the rhythm is made more complicated. It ends with a fierce reiteration of the final chords.

Etudes:

1. Allegro ma non troppo, f minor

2. Allegro, C Major

3. Grave - Meno mosso, c minor

4. [withdrawn, would be republished in op.39]

5. Moderato, d minor

6. Non allegro - Presto, eb minor

7. Allegro con fuoco, Eb Major

8. Moderato, g minor

9. Grave, c# minor

[itgotinmyears]

Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39: No. 5 in E flat minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff on the album --. Listened to on October 01, 2015 at 08:53PM.

[itgotinmyears]

Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33: No. 2 in C major: Allegro by Sergei Rachmaninoff on the album --. Listened to on October 01, 2015 at 08:49PM.

[itgotinmyears]

Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33: No. 3 in C minor: Grave by Sergei Rachmaninoff on the album --. Listened to on October 01, 2015 at 08:45PM.

[itgotinmyears]

Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33: No. 3 in C minor: Grave by Sergei Rachmaninoff on the album --. Listened to on October 01, 2015 at 08:42PM.

[hannibalsmusic]

Visit Original Link

Rachmaninoff, Etude-tableau op. 39 No. 2 ("The Sea and the Seagulls")

Alain Kremski, piano

painting: Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin

[dithyrambo]

Another recording of Rachmaninov's Étude-Tableau Op. 33 No. 4 in D minor, performed by the great Sviatoslav Richter.

Richter makes the voicing of the separate simultaneous melodic lines sound so clear and effortless, and it is so not, what with the thickness and chromatic nature of the accompanying note figurations.  The crispness of Richter's note clusters from 2:24 - 2:39 is jaw-dropping, demonstrating contrary motion in the same hand with multiple notes, without any noticeable strain or hesitation.

That descending four-note motif that first appears in the left hand at 0:33? In a lot of recordings, you don't even notice it until the denouement of the piece at 2:41, but it's been underpinning the piece the entire time, and Richter makes it plainly apparent.