10 Preludes, op.23 (Rachmaninoff)
The 10 Preludes op. 23 are a piano cycle composed between 1901 and 1903 by Sergei Rachmaninoff . He dedicated the work to his teacher, cousin and patron Alexander Siloti , a student of Franz Liszt .
With the cycle he continued the genre of the prelude and thus tied on a line of tradition that extends from Johann Sebastian Bach's well-tempered piano to Chopin's style-defining collection of the Preludes, Op. 28 .
Rachmaninoff further differentiated his personal style, which was already pronounced in earlier works - such as the Morceaux de fantaisie - with the original, full-fingered piano setting and designed a more complex music that was enriched by compositional, polyphonic elements in places . With the characteristic, melancholy-pathetic tonal language, the dramatic upswings and dynamic increases, the work (along with the second cycle op. 32) can be regarded as a high point of late romantic piano music.
The fifth, rhythmically distinctive prelude in G minor in particular is part of the standard and encore repertoire of many pianists. Because of their high manual and tonal demands, most pieces are beyond the reach of amateurs.
Origin and background
After the success of the famous C sharp minor preludes , composed as early as 1892 , which Rachmaninoff was soon to play again and again for the audience - soon much to his chagrin - he turned to this genre again only ten years later, and then paused again to present even more complex pieces with his Opus 32 for another seven years.
The 24 Preludes were created in this way over a comparatively long period of time from 1892 to 1910 and are divided into three collections. He wanted to build on the famous line of tradition from Bach to Chopin's Preludes, which was later also taken up by other composers, each with their own focus. They include Alexander Scriabin , who according to his op 24 Preludes. 11 admittedly still more pieces distributed across multiple collections, Claude Debussy with a total of 24, two collections distributed preludes and Shostakovich with 24 preludes for piano solo op. 34 . In contrast to Chopin, Skriabin and Shostakovich, this cycle is less strictly conceived. Rachmaninoff, for whom it was not easy to maintain thought lines and arcs of tension in longer conceptions, did not want to combine the individual pieces with extra-musical ideas or to set them down to specific moods. For him it was a question of shorter works of absolute music , which, according to the idea of prelude, were to be played before more important works or with which certain events were to be introduced.
content
The first prelude in F sharp minor ( Largo , 4/4) is a calmly flowing piece, the descending theme of which radiates contemplative calm above the incessant sixteenth-note movement of the left hand, until there is a brief dynamic increase so typical of Rachmaninoff in the middle section.
After this calm prelude, one of the most brilliant piano storms in music history breaks out with the second Prelude in B flat major ( Maestoso , 4/4). The thunderous sixteenth-note sextuplets of the left hand, beginning with a bass octave, and the powerful, jerking theme of the right, are a passionate as well as life-affirming burst of energy that does not offer the player any relief. In the middle section, the right hand plays a rushing companion figure, while the left hand creates an ascending melody.
The third prelude in D minor in Tempo di minuetto is reminiscent of a minuet with its 3/4 time only in form and announces the composer's later, gloomy marches with a defiant staccato figure in the left hand.
The mood of the fourth prelude in D major ( Andante cantabile , 3/4) is that of a song without words . A sweeping triplet figure in the left hand underlines the heartfelt, yearning melody. After a dynamic peak, the singing repeats itself with chordal enrichments and upper part.
The best-known piece of the cycle is the three-part, lively fifth prelude in G minor ( Alla marcia , 4/4) , reminiscent of a wild march , whose simple main theme, accompanied by a striking three-tone motif, after a few repetitions of a majestic and powerful one and full-bodied E flat major episode from bar 17 onwards. The catchy rhythmic nucleus has its origin in the long and original marching part of Chopin's F sharp minor polonaise .
In the energetic stream of the Prelude, Rachmaninoff layers sounds almost polytonally on top of one another, without forming clusters in the modern sense, since the structure is retained despite the layering. At the beginning of the recapitulation, A flat major and C minor chords are piled on top of each other. While the upper parts form a pure A-flat major sound, the bass parts can be interpreted bitonally as a C minor fourth chord.
Above all, the piece captivates with its intimate, initially tentatively rising middle section ( Un poco meno mosso ): a melody in G minor, accompanied by a sweeping accompanying figure, whose harmonic effect is based on the D seventh chord played around, from bar 38 of one The middle voice is dramatically enriched, rears up further until, poco a poco accelerando, the defiant marching motif announces itself .
In his sixth Prelude in E flat major ( Andante , 4/4), the left hand does not take on the accompanying function as usual, but moves into the foreground of the action with its legato movement that is played legato until the end .
The seventh Prelude in C minor ( Allegro , 4/4) convinces with its rousing, wild sixteenth-note movements, which suggests Chopin's model - the so-called "Revolutionary Etude" Op. 10 No. 12. Rachmaninoff again demonstrates his skill in having a very quick figure play around a cantilena . An alla breve melody with longer values stood out above the virtuoso figure, to be played first from the right, then with both hands . An organ point enriches the composition, which is made even more difficult by the octave overlap of the left hand.
The eighth prelude in A flat major ( Allegro vivace , 3/2) has the character of an etude: Opposite the quarter-slur of the left hand, the right constantly plays four-note sixteenth-note groups, in which the first note must first be held, while it is later left out so that the group only consists of three tones.
The ninth Prelude in E flat minor ( Presto , 4/4) is also reminiscent of an etude with its extremely complicated third-sixth fingerings on the right hand.
At the end of the collection, the tenth Prelude in G flat major ( Largo , 3/4) convinces with its calm melody carried by the left hand, over which the right puts a veil of floating chords.