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Russian composers are well known for writing great melodies, and I would like to hear what some of your favorites are. I predict that this will be a good thread.
"A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacles and opposition will but make us 'like the fabled specter-ships,' which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind." R. W. Emerson
Here's a few more from Rach 1. 3:45 here - a beautiful passage from the cadenza. And just listen to that perfectly crafted left hand. The accompaniment is an essential component of any great melody, a fact most pianists seem not to be aware of.
Of course, there is the second movement's theme. And then - it is not precisely a melody, in the way that the others are, but I've always been very fond of this particular little passage from the finale. 1:12:
Rachmaninoff's interpretation, of course, is definitive.
Medtner, so far, has escaped mention. Let me cite two passages in particular from his 2nd piano concerto. 1:44 here:
And 5:37 here. I stress this episode not so much for the melody itself, but for the beautiful passagework in the piano which surrounds it, giving it its fairylike aura. Again, the accompaniment is an essential component of a melody. In a slightly off-topic vein, I think this entire movement is about a journey - a journey through fantasy-land. Perhaps the main reason for its very undeserved unpopularity is that most people fail to realize this. It is a very fun movement to play and to listen to, but one has to adopt a certain creative, even childlike, mentality.
