Week 1: Let's start Rach-ing!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK ONE Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between March 13 - March 20 I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
1. Pick a Piece of Rachmaninoff to study and let us know!
Check here for suggested repertoire pieces, including "Beginner" level Rachmaninoff
2. Optional: Watch the Kick off livestream where Dominic walks us through some of these suggested pieces, and listen to excerpts!
https://app.tonebase.co/piano/live/player/pno-rachmaninoff-birthday-kickoff-challenge
3. Optional for Everyone: Listen to Rachmaninoff playing some of his own music, share the video and let us know what you think!
Let me help you get started!
Rachmaninoff Plays his C-sharp minor prelude
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcG-DnGdWRw
I listened to Rachmaninoff play his famous C-sharp minor prelude and a few things I noticed:
He didn't play the opening insanely loud! He saved the fireworks for the recap (last page).
The middle section still had such an amazing clarity.
The music never felt like it was "metronomic" he has an unbelievable way of allowing it to always flow.
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I won't be participating by playing in this challenge, but it is giving me an excuse to explore Rachmaninoff's music. I found his Elegie Op. 3 No. 1 - today, it is my favorite! The emotional range he expresses in his playing is extraordinary: tenderness, hope, love, reminiscence, anger (of a sort), resignation, all with an undercurrent of sadness/grief.
I can imagine a lovely pas de deux being danced to this piece.
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Thanks very much, Dominic, for compiling a list of the more approachable Rachmaninoff pieces. I anticipate going back to the list again to play some of the other pieces, but for now I have picked Melodie, Op 3 no 3, to play as my very first Rachmaninoff piece ever!
Listening to various recordings, Rachmaninoff's playing really stands out. It has everything, the slightly melancholic singing melody, the expressive dynamics throughout including the chord progressions, and an assertive and confidently styled rubato. I am in awe!
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Natalie Peh So beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to hearing your performance!
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Vidhya Bashyam I hope I am able to get it in presentable shape in time.
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Natalie Peh very beautiful! Can’t wait to hear you play it!
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Andrea Buckland I will try my very best :)
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I am going to learn Rachmaninoff’s piano transcription of his own vocal composition- Daisies, Op 38/3, based on a poem by Igor Severianin:
Just look! See how many daisies there are
Here and there…
They are in flower, so many of them, in abundance.
Their three-faceted petals are like wings,
Like white silk.
They are the summer’s might, the joy of plenty,
A radiant army!
Prepare, oh earth, a drink of dew drops,
To refresh the flowers’ stems…
Oh maidens fair! Oh little daisy starlets!
How I love you!
Here is Rachmaninoff playing his delicate composition. Beautiful imagery and maybe a hint of longing. He plays it faster than many other pianists I have heard but of course that suits him! I love his trills!
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Vidhya Bashyam You're right about the trills! So delicate! I heard an anecdote, not sure how far this is true, that at an exam at the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky was his examiner and gave him 5 marks out of a maximum of 5, but he must have played so brilliantly, that Tchaikovsky just had to go back and add +++ after the 5! :D
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Vidhya Bashyam Gorgeous poem and piece! Looking forward to listen to your playing!
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Vidhya Bashyam I never thought of Rachmaninoff playing as delicate, but this just shows what a range he had. Such a beautiful and wistful piece, great choice.
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This is a slightly more humorous post, but here is a very *interesting* recording of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKKlhYF53w
People with small hands take note!
Joshua
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Josh&Tim This is hilarious, Joshua!!
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Josh&Tim I love it!! Hahahaha
! Made my day!
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Here is the picture of a young Rachmaninoff in the front of my music book looking quite modern and dapper! I think I must have bought this old book in a charity shop. It contains Op3 and a selection from op10.
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Hazel very dapper indeed! That book is precious! I wish there were stores for used music scores where I am.
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I’ll be working on his Prelude Op.32 no 5 in G major. The first time I listened to it I picture an icy landscape, with some melting of snow.
I couldn’t find a video of him playing this piece, but I found him playing another prelude that also has long melodies with a glittering background.
His playing really blew me away with the virtuosity, balance of voices, and dynamic control. Even with all the many notes in the right hand in the higher “louder” register, the melody is still very present while still being delicate and naturally flowing, not forced.-
Alice Lin Amazing how even though there are so many notes in his pieces- he gives importance to each one and you can hear them all distinctly.
FYI- I loved Boris Giltburg’s tonebase class on 32/5. Highly recommend it!
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Vidhya Bashyam oh thanks! I’ll check out his tutorial.
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Alice Lin dazzling playing in the video! Look forward to listening to your piece!
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Hello everyone! I like the Prelude op.23/5. I have tryed to play it last year, but I didn’t get it in my mind. I am working on op.3/2.
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Hi all, I am Cyrus from Shenzhen, China. I have been learning from about February
For his 150th birthday
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Good morning! I am working on the middle part of op.3/2. Rachmaninow is great.
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I was going to revive Rach Prelude no 3 op 23, on second thoughts I will post his prelude no 12 op 32 which I already have under my fingers, and will take this opportunity to learn something new, at least the 1st 3 pgs of his transcription of Kreisler Liebeslied. Such a lovely tune with a jazz swing.
