Feb 14, 2025
Moszkowski... 😍
The part of the Andante (in his Second Piano Concerto) where the composer reached heaven... And I'm in tears.
seen from Germany
seen from Russia
seen from Sweden
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from Malaysia
seen from Canada
seen from Austria
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
Moszkowski... 😍
The part of the Andante (in his Second Piano Concerto) where the composer reached heaven... And I'm in tears.
...from Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto. Timeless
August 1913, after the premiere of Sergei Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto.
If I'm not mistaken, Prokofiev is the one in the middle.
This is a really special post, for so many reasons; for one, it is from one of Shostakovich's many incredible works, his second piano concerto, from which we have the first movement. For another, it is played by Shostakovich himself, and is of remarkably high quality for such an old recording. This movement was featured in Fantasia 2000 set to a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," though I highly doubt Shostakovich had that as his intentions when he wrote it (though I think they get it to work fairly well). Still, I don't think anyone can listen to this a single time and not instantly fall in love with Shostakovich.
Of the people who should be severely overrepresented on this blog, Rachmaninoff is probably the most underrepresented. Here we have one of his most classic works, his second piano concerto, from which we have the amazing finale here. One of the first piano concertos I listened to repeatedly, it truly is captivating, intense, emotional, and just an overall good display of all that a piano is capable of doing.