Utwory na płycie:

• 1 Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 28 - I. Allegro moderato.mp3
• 2 Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 28 - II. Lento.mp3
• 3 Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 28 - III. Allegro molto.mp3
• 4 6 Romances, Op.16 I. Cradle Song (Arr. Sergei Rachmaninov).mp3
• 5 Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 36 - I. Allegro agitato.mp3
• 6 Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 36 - II. Non allegro.mp3
• 7 Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 36 - III. L’istesso tempo – Allegro molto.mp3

Piano Sonata No.1 in D minor op28
Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor op36
Tchaikovsky - Lullaby op16/1 (arr.Rachmaninov)

Rachmaninov started composing the Sonata No. 1 op. 28 in the spring of 1907 in Dresden while simultaneously working on his Symphony No. 2 and the opera “Monna Vanna”. He writes to a friend on 8 May 1907: “The Sonata is without any doubt wild and endlessly long. I think about 45 minutes. I was drawn into such dimensions by a programme or rather by some leading idea. It is three contrasting characters from a work of world literature. Of course, no programme will be given to the public, although I am beginning to think that if I were to reveal the programme, the Sonata would become much more comprehensible. No one will ever play this composition because of its difficulty and length...” the composer revealed later that “he had in mind Goethe’s “Faust” and that the 1st movement related to Faust, the 2nd one to Gretchen and the 3rd was the flight to the Brocken and Mephistopheles.” The 2nd Sonata op. 36 is an astounding feat of compositional ingenuity: it is created out of a single thematic seed. As with several of his works, Rachmaninov felt dissatisfied with the first version of the Sonata composed in 1913 and eventually revised it in 1931 significantly shortening it and thinning out the texture. He told his friend Alfred Swann: “I look at my early works and can see how much there is superfluous. Even in this Sonata there is so much unnecessary movement of the voices, and it is too long. Chopin’s Sonata lasts 19 minutes and everything is said”. The transcription of Tchaikovsky's "Lullaby” for piano, Op. 16 No. 1, which Rachmaninov made in August 1941, is his last work. It is a remarkable coincidence that one of the very first pieces that he wrote as a 13-year-old boy in 1886 was the arrangement of another composition by Tchaikovsky.

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Recorded at Wyastone Hall on 7-9 December 2015