Exploring My Favorite Composer! | Rachmaninoff - Symphonic Dances | Classical Music Reaction

[@Draspber]

Honestly, I absolutely love the fact that this is the last piece Rachmaninoff ever wrote. It's probably wrong to simplify it like that, since it is a really profound work and, in many ways, seems to me that it was quite personal piece to Rachmaninoff...but you have to admit, how badass (in a good way) is it that your last piece is such a masterpiece, filled with amazing melodies and insane power...

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

I have to agree. Also great that he quotes his 1st Symphony in the Coda of the first Movement, thinking that he had destroyed it and no one was ever going to hear anything from it again. That's also fitting for a composers last work, to revisit a brainchild of his that he thought was a failure because of the catastrophic first performance. But I have to repeat my sentiment about this performance that I posted on the original video 11 months ago: Ashkenazy ignoring Rachmaninov's "Non Allegro" for the 1st Movement simply doesn't sit right with me. It's "NOT fast" and he goes in very much fast. Therefore not the best performance of the movement. The others are very well done, but the first one misses the mark.

[@Draspber]

@@QuotenwagnerianerI also used to hear this piece in a slower tempo but at the end of the day it is hard to guess what is right. I’ve read in Russian Wikipedia that in 1942 printing house made a mistake and original score was printed with Non-Alegro instead of Allegro and later this mistake was crossed by hand. Nevertheless, this error is now somehow “stuck”. However, how can we check it..) The moment from his first symphony is one of the most beautiful moments of the whole piece!

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

If that is a printing mistake then why has the composers own 2 Piano Version the same play instruction? Also Rachmaninov was very much alive to instruct Eugeune Ormandy who did the first recording of the piece. And Ormandy also plays it "Non Allegro".@@Draspber

[@Draspber]

@@Quotenwagnerianer my bad. It seems that mistake appeared not in the original score. However, I kinda believe that Rachmaninoff wanted this piece to be in allegro (knowing his style, how he played his own works, how this piece sounds). I put that text from wiki into translator so it might be a bit ugly: The premiere of "Symphonic Dances" took place under the direction of Yu. Ormandy (with the Philadelphia Orchestra) on January 3, 1941. During a performance with D. Mitropoulos (and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra) in November 1942, Rachmaninov, who was present at the concert, noticed that in the score of the first movement, Non allegro was mistakenly printed instead of Allegro, and the word non was crossed out by hand[1]. The erroneous designation of the tempo of the first movement is found in many later reissues of the score and in almost all audio recordings of "Symphonic Dances" up to the present day. In 2018, the record company Marston Records published[2] an amateur audio recording made in December 1940 at Ormandy's house, where Rachmaninoff plays (on the piano) the entire suite (with explanations). The tempo that the composer takes at the beginning of the first movement is about a quarter = 116.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

@@Quotenwagnerianermaybe he was suffering from melanoma, and as I know from my own experience Isa horrible disease and until 10 years ago was always fatal. I was very lucky, thanks to the miracle immunotherapy drug I made it - just So have special affection for Sergei.

[@user-culkepta]

Can you do Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe - suite 2 next time? It's my favorite piece and I'd dare say that it's one of the lushest, creative and beautiful compositions in human history.

[@anthropocentrus]

Ugh this work is a blinding brilliant diamond, I love it so much, it abounds with energy and knockout vigour. Absolutely top tier writing and orchestration, his top game in full display. In the end Rach chose to DANCE...from a STOMPING peasant rustic dance to a charged frenetic showdown...no time for tears!

[@VeguldenZilverling]

If you like this piece, then you might also like The Bells, a choral symphony which is forgotten even more often than this here brilliant work. I love it

[@Queeen7q]

I like Kondrashin's performance.

[@Ziad3195]

The 4-minute melody in the first movement is one of the most beautiful and tear-jerking moments I know. Also, the final movement is filled with Dies Irae's, the medieval chant for the dead. The 2nd movement Is like a ghostly, creepy waltz. Love the piece.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

I’m just having the shivers just thinking of it. It’s full of ‘modernisms’ including a series of 12 different notes in the bass in movt 1 He also made an effective version for 2 pianos

[@Ziad3195]

@@robkeeleycomposer Oh, where is the 12-note thing you are talking about?

[@robkeeleycomposer]

It’s really just a series of augmented triads at the start of the development section. It’s bit like the opening of Liszt’s Faust Symphony. It might be a kind of in-joke!

[@aleksklyar]

Это совершенно невероятное произведение. Вершина гармонического искусства, в любых пределах музыкальных теорий и стилей написания. Спасибо Вам за прослушивание и компанию.

[@Queeen7q]

Любимое произведение у Светланова, кстати.

[@giovannib27]

W reaction choice, another top tier fire rach piece is "isle of the dead"

[@orangewedges]

Excellent recommendation, fellow music listener. That is an amazing piece.

[@SeaHercules]

I like Mikhail Pletnev's recording with the Russian national orchestra the most

[@giovannib27]

@@SeaHercules yeah that one is good, i always listen to that one or the Andrew Davis with the Stockholm Phil. (Just the picture of the painting on KZbin). I feel like Gidi should watch that one to immerse with the painting as well, because it was the inspiration for the piece.

[@bondenhenrik4555]

Yes finally! Probably my favourite Rachmaninoff piece. As many people have commented you should listen to the isle of the dead but also his symphonies 1 and 3.

[@grandadrepsher1]

It's always a pleasure to watch someone enjoy one of the great works for the first time.

[@salmonidae3667]

If there's one piece I'm waiting for this guy to react to, it's Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. It blew my mind the first time I listened to it and it stands firm in my opinion as one of the greatest orchestral compositions of all time.

[@_de_reve]

Love Rachmaninov too since he composes so dynamically and modern enough that i can access it. Also did you ever listen to his first composed piece? he wrote it when he was like 15 and still in the conservatory. it's epic to my ears as well. if i remember right it was a dance as well.

[@danielcrayne5344]

Great composition...it kind of sums up Rachmaninoff's career. Listen for the jazz influences - including saxophone!

[@MennoTeekens42]

The last part is the battle between death and life, set to music. At the end the Dies Irae theme (which depicts death) is defeated by a theme from Rachmaninoff's The All Night Virgil. That theme symbolizes the resurrection of Christ.

[@whatafreakinusername]

This piece contains quotes from other works by Rachmaninoff; for one example, at 10:52 this beautiful melody is an augmentation of the primary motif from his First Symphony (all four movements), an otherwise great work whose premiere was so disastrous that Rachmaninoff fell into an actual depression. You should totally listen to it, and the other two symphonies. Another example is at 35:41, this sort-of climactic moment is from a movement of the "All-Night Vigil", an acapella sacred work that is considered one of the best in the repertoire, and is also definitely worth a listen.

[@philip.stigaard]

Please listen to isle of the dead you won't be dissapointed, best orchestral piece by rach

[@giovannib27]

I wrote the same thing and he liked mine too, I think we gonna get it :))))

[@Louisthefourteenth]

Recommendation: rachmaninov: The bells

[@Dan1099ilo]

you should react to rachmaninoff's symphonic poeme "the isle of dead"

[@myrondyal6117]

he wrote this at the end of his life!!!!!

[@DonnaGisellaTranchel]

Yes! Amazing! 🦩✨💎🦩

[@Queeen7q]

The 2nd mov. is a delirious waltz, like Mahler (5th symph., 3rd mov.) or Ravel wrote.

[@stevenklimecky4918]

That was a great recording of this piece.

[@pleasedyes]

Oh nice KZbin recommended finding me cool stuff! As a harpist, I think it would be cool if you reacted to some prominent harp music such as Introduction et Allegro by Ravel or Debussy’s Danse Sacree et Profane Also if you haven’t already The Planets by Holst would be great to check out

[@Ziad3195]

What are your favourite harp pieces and Gidi did the planet already. I adore Debussy and Ravel.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Such a fine, loveable piece. Have you tried the choral Vespers, also known as the All Night Vigil? I can easily get through a whole packet of tissues. And yet Sergei wasn’t a believer,not that you’d guess! Incidentally he quotes a bit of it at the end of the SD.

[@BMouk-ed5yw]

Actually, he was a "faithful Orthodox" man, by his own words. My late father used to see him at the Orthodox cathedral on 97th Street in New York, especially at Easter.

[@robkeeleycomposer]

@@BMouk-ed5yw If that were the case, it would make me very happy indeed.

[@sean-kb4wr]

You should hear prince rostislav

[@robkeeleycomposer]

Is it that great? I’m open!