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In Reply to: RE: dead heat posted by Amphissa on April 02, 2010 at 00:12:14
That's some very fine repertoire to have so many recordings of! :-)
BTW, I actually like Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 1 better than his Sonata No. 2 - I don't know why No. 2 is so much more popular.
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I do too. However, it is fiendishly difficult to draw out the line from all the gazzillion notes of gnarliness, so I've only heard 2 recordings that I think are really good. The best IMO by a huge margin is Yakov Kasman's live performance during the Van Cliburn competition. I'm convinced that performance won him the silver. It was really quite spectacular, probably contributed to because of the intensity of live performance. There are a few studio recordings that are pretty good. But most performers just don't get it and its a waste of time listening to them.
I keep waiting for some intrepid virtuoso to tackle the complete score. No one, to my knowledge, has ever played the complete version but Rachmaninoff himself.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
I knew there are original and revised editions of the Second Sonata, but I didn't know that is also true of the First Sonata. Even in the version I know (International Edition), the First just seems to be a more epic work than the Second. Is the complete score of the First published somewhere?
I think, in general, Rachmaninoff needs his compositional expansiveness - things didn't work out quite as well for his music, IMHO, when he tried to tighten up the structure, as in the Fourth Concerto and the Third Symphony - those works sound fragmented compared to the real masterpieces of his output.
I agree with you about the effects of revision/condensation on his 4th concerto and 3rd symphony. But also, when he wrote those two works, he was feeling pressured to become more "modern." The 3rd movement of the 3rd symphony is an example. It consciously pusheed into areas of atonality that were quite uncharacteristic for him, and not successfully to me. He commented repeatedly about how difficult it was for him to compose in that style. Melody was in his soul. And the 4th concerto suffered from the influences of others whose opinion he decided to accept, rather than just writing another great romantic concerto. Too bad.
The second sonata is easier, more accessible for the listener and less challenging for the performer (although still quite daunting). But the melodies are more on the surface, less embedded in the complex fabric of dense writing. (I am not a pianist, so I'm sure I am completely out of my depth talking about this with you.) The first sonata requires a real understanding of the whole, beginning to end, in order to extract the line and themes, yet retain the richness of the writing. Much more challenging, but also possessing great beauty and power, if played well.
I'm not a pianist, but I don't perceive the 2nd sonata as being as difficult as a performer to make accessible to listeners.
Yes, epic is a terrific way to characterize the 1st. The original was even more challenging than the version currently available. I think it was 10-15 minutes longer, and I can only imagine the sort of talent and sheer stamina it would require. It is my understanding that Boosey & Hawkes were planning to publish the original score, but I don't know if they ever did.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
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