Picture of sergei rachmaninov vocalise
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Basically, Wild was a pianist for whom technical difficulties did not exist. He was famous for his pyrotechnic recitals and master classes around the world, which brought him from Seoul and Beijing and from Tokyo and Argentina.
Wild was particularly known for creating virtuoso solo piano transcriptions on themes by famous composers.
Wild, solo piano) (Giovanni Doria Miglietta, piano)
The American pianist Earl Wild leaped to fame playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Arturo Toscanini. The music sounds a great deal of apprehension and uncertainty, but it eventually reaches a point of guarded optimism.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff: “Vocalise,” Op.
34 No. 14 (arr. Would it go too far to call her interpretations visionary? Alessio Bax, solo piano) (Alessio Bax, piano)
The first time I heard pianist Alessio Bax in life performance, I was immediately captured by the almost hypnotic intensity of his playing. I hear a different kind of distress in the performance by Augustin Hadelich.
While the étude underwent a radical transformation during the 19th century that began with Frédéric Chopin, the vocalise did not. As pianists go, he is a wonderful lyricist. Montero, solo piano) (Gabriela Montero, piano)
I have been in love with Gabriela Montero from the very first time I saw her on stage. By then, Rachmaninoff had already converted the piano accompaniment into an orchestral score to be conducted by Serge Koussevitzky.
That’s certainly impressive, but did you know that he was the first pianist to stream a performance over the internet in 1997? His take on the “Vocalise” is highly expressive, but luckily, it doesn’t carry the kind of serious aftertaste that frequently comes with these kinds of transcriptions.
Alessio Bax
Sergei Rachmaninoff: “Vocalise,” Op.
34 No. 14 (arr. The sense of melancholy is completely channelled into a world of jazz harmonies and infectious rhythms. Indeed, the piece needs no explanatory text because its message of pathos and poignancy comes through clearly in the keening vocal part, marked by gradual, embellished lines and repeated dirge-like chords in the piano. Rachmaninoff, most famous for his piano concertos, demonstrates his understanding and love of the cello not only within the orchestra parts of those concertos, but also with his rich cello sonata in g minor, and various short pieces he wrote for the instrument. Natasha Farny
More music by Sergei Rachmaninov
Classical Music for the Internet Era™
RACHMANINOFF: Vocalise
08 Apr 2022
by Jeff Counts
Duration: 6 minutes.
THE COMPOSER – SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943) – That Rachmaninoff is remembered best today as a virtuoso pianist and a composer of multiple evergreen masterpieces for his chosen instrument is perhaps no surprise.
She plays the piano incredibly well, but the most stunning aspect of her craft are real-time improvisations of complex musical melodies or pieces, mostly suggested by her audience.
I read somewhere that she hated to practice, “because music is an extension of life, and I don’t like to use the word practicing, but rather discovery.” For Montero, sitting at the piano is a journey of discovering who you are in that moment as a performer.
Joseph DuBose
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Vocalise, Opus 34, No. 14 in e minor Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff originally wrote the Vocalise, a song without words, for voice and piano.
She initially balked at the lack of text, but the composer convinced her that, in her capable care, the music required no such context and that the single syllable of “Ah” was enough. His “Grand Fantasy on Airs from Porgy and Bess,” in the style of the grand opera fantasies of Liszt, was the first extended piano paraphrase of an American opera.
A brief coda concludes the piece where the voice soars above the accompaniment before coming to rest on the tonic and fading away into the final cadence.
Though Rachmaninoff indicated the work can be sung by a soprano or a tenor, it is generally performed by the former, and like many songs, is transposed to different keys to best match the range of the vocalist.
Clearly, a number of other instruments seem to be better suited for that particular task. As Rachmaninoff explained to a singer, “What need is there of words when you are able to convey everything better and more expressively than anyone could with words by your voice and interpretation?”
The young Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff seemed pretty sure that not all music required text to convey intense emotion; rather, “the absence of words can be one of the contributing factors to its immense emotional intensity and sorrow.”
Sergei Rachmaninoff: “Vocalise” Op.
34 No. 14
To me, this melody communicates a sense of lush melancholy. Rachmaninoff wrote the song for the star coloratura soprano Antonina Nezhdanova of the Moscow Grand Opera.