I've decided to start this topic and post every week about a certain artist/composer/band that I like and their best songs of my choice.
So I will start with a composer.
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music.
Early influences of other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output. He made a point of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works he revealed a sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.
Rachmaninoff's style showed initially the influence of Tchaikovsky. Beginning in the mid-1890s, his compositions began showing a more individual tone. His First Symphony has many original features. Its brutal gestures and uncompromising power of expression were unprecedented in Russian music at the time. Its flexible rhythms, sweeping lyricism and stringent economy of thematic material were all features he kept and refined in subsequent works. After the three fallow years following the poor reception of the symphony, Rachmaninoff's style began developing significantly. He started leaning towards sumptuous harmonies and broadly lyrical, often passionate melodies. His orchestration became subtler and more varied, with textures carefully contrasted, and his writing on the whole became more concise.
He was born on April 1, 1873 and died of melanoma on March 28, 1943.
So I will start with a composer.
Early influences of other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output. He made a point of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works he revealed a sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.
Rachmaninoff's style showed initially the influence of Tchaikovsky. Beginning in the mid-1890s, his compositions began showing a more individual tone. His First Symphony has many original features. Its brutal gestures and uncompromising power of expression were unprecedented in Russian music at the time. Its flexible rhythms, sweeping lyricism and stringent economy of thematic material were all features he kept and refined in subsequent works. After the three fallow years following the poor reception of the symphony, Rachmaninoff's style began developing significantly. He started leaning towards sumptuous harmonies and broadly lyrical, often passionate melodies. His orchestration became subtler and more varied, with textures carefully contrasted, and his writing on the whole became more concise.
He was born on April 1, 1873 and died of melanoma on March 28, 1943.
source: Wikipedia
I could say that Rachmaninoff is my favorite composer. His performance on the piano is so passionate and you can feel that in his every piece. He strictly makes contrasts between the dramatic and the lyric. I enjoy listening to his pieces at every time, when I feel sad, they cheer me up, when I feel happy, they make me feel even more happy.
My personal favorite is his Prelude in G Minor op. 23 no. 5. The harmonies in this prelude are just... magnificent, as well as the slow and lyric part in the middle, which is a "sigh of relief" between two tense parts. I would recommend you all to listen to this while drinking your coffee and reading your book (or anything else) and enjoy the rest of this day! :)
