As many of you know, I have a passion for classical music. A friend of mine, Edawg, sent me this link to a performance of a Rachmaninov piece, with the pianist complaining (I think? I don’t understand enough Japanese to really know.



There is another video of the same pianist and his Ruskie or slavic cohort doing their rendition of “I will survive”



Never seen a hand mixer used in a violin and piano perfomance before, I have to say I approve. You rarely see innovation like this in the classical scene. Especially when that innovation sounds good and not like a cow fucking an ill-tuned piano like a lot of the early 20th century musical ‘innovation.’

I was trying to find a film of Rachmaninoff playing, but I believe he died before the end of the silent film era. So here first we have a video of Rachmaninoff the man, now with audio voiceover, so you can see how massive he truly is.



Here’s an early 20th century recording of Rachmaninoff playing his own Piano Concerto No. 2. We’re actually lucky enough to have had Rachmaninoff, one of the last of the great pianist-composers the world has seen, record his own work, the way he wanted it played. It’s unfortunately that audio technology was still in it’s infancy, I imagine these hollow, tinny recordings are only a slight indicatio of the majest that would have been heard had one been present and able to drink in the full audio spectrum. Still, if you know what a mordern recording of this piece sounds like, you can mentally fill in the blanks for yourself. Modern performances of this piece, even by a second-class orchestra (and by second-class I mean small, not necessarily un-talented) is still hauntingly beautiful.



It’s the first movement, so if you like, look for Piano Concerto No2 mov 2 and mov 3 to finish off the set – though the first movement is probably the most beautiful.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 08:10.