Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
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.
I knew somebody would post that one eventually. But there is a melody in there that is often overlooked in favor of Variation 18, and it is quite worthy of consideration - 20:00. It so happens that I very much dislike this particular performance of it.
You didn't mention the superimposition of the two melodies in the cadenza of the Medtner. In context it really is breathtaking. Skip to 0:56:
I'm surprised no one's beat me too the Rachmaninoff 2nd sonata. There are so many. The second subject theme at the meno mosso. The 2nd movement's main theme. The slow theme in the 3rd movement. There literally is one every movement. It's no wonder why it's played so often despite it's problems.
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
No Beethoven, no Russian music - what DO you like, I wonder? Verdi?
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
No Beethoven, no Russian music - what DO you like, I wonder? Verdi?
No thanks!
I love Russian piano music! Especially Scriabin! But I admit I am not much into Rach.
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
No Beethoven, no Russian music - what DO you like, I wonder? Verdi?
No thanks!
I love Russian piano music! Especially Scriabin! But I admit I am not much into Rach.
Most of what has been posted here is not Rach. But you said most of it didn't appeal to you. So what else doesn't appeal to you?
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
No Beethoven, no Russian music - what DO you like, I wonder? Verdi?
No thanks!
I love Russian piano music! Especially Scriabin! But I admit I am not much into Rach.
Most of what has been posted here is not Rach. But you said most of it didn't appeal to you. So what else doesn't appeal to you?
I suspect you are into Chopin.
I edited my post above, the computer is giving me trouble.
Yes, I like a lot of Chopin, not everything though. I like a lot of baroque (Scarlatti and Rameau especially), a lot of composers from the Romantic era (Scriabin, Franck and Ljadov are among my favorites in addition to Chopin) and also some of 20th century piano music. Classical era music I don't usually like at all.
I just meant the specific melodies in this thread don't appeal to me, although I do like some of the pieces.
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
No Beethoven, no Russian music - what DO you like, I wonder? Verdi?
No thanks!
I love Russian piano music! Especially Scriabin! But I admit I am not much into Rach.
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
No Beethoven, no Russian music - what DO you like, I wonder? Verdi?
No thanks!
I love Russian piano music! Especially Scriabin! But I admit I am not much into Rach.
A great melody doesn't have to be any of that. Remember, we're just discussing Russian melodies, which tend to be along those lines, and there are a lot of them. Don't even get me started on German ones, or we'll be here all year.
Remember, in music, the Germans always come first. I could make an entire catalogue out of the great melodies of Beethoven and Brahms alone.
OK, then I am just on the wrong thread, since Beethoven's melodies never appealed to me either
No Beethoven, no Russian music - what DO you like, I wonder? Verdi?
No thanks!
I love Russian piano music! Especially Scriabin! But I admit I am not much into Rach.
Oddly enough, I don't care for the melodies in the first sonata. Even the second movement doesn't do much for me.
Well, as is quite well known here in some quarters, I'm no fan of the Rachmaninov piano sonatas. (Cello sonata, yes.) But of course others feel differently.
Now, what would be the Fur Elise of the advanced pianists, I wonder?
If we're holding intermediate pianists to the standard of Prelude in G minor and Fantasie Impromptu, then I won't be considered an advanced pianist for awhile. Even Valentina hit a wrong note in that octave passage, so how the heck is this an accessible piece for most intermediate level players?
"If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis."
"If life gives you lemonade, make lemons. Life'll be all like whaaaaaat?" - Phil Dunphy
That doesn't surprise me. There is maybe almost as much to like as to not like. They really are somewhat uneven. I sometime wonder if the 1st sonata was the length of 2nd if it would enjoy more popularity.
That doesn't surprise me. There is maybe almost as much to like as to not like. They really are somewhat uneven. I sometime wonder if the 1st sonata was the length of 2nd if it would enjoy more popularity.
Interesting that both of them are in three movements only.
They really are somewhat uneven. I sometime wonder if the 1st sonata was the length of 2nd if it would enjoy more popularity.
Uneven, yes, though I don't think length is the issue.
Rachmaninov, after all, had no problem handling longs spans of time -the concertos, symphonies, suites for 2 pianos for example- but considering his resounding success with shorter piano works, it is odd that the piano sonatas seem tentative and generally overblown. I never hear that in the etudes or preludes.
Now, what would be the Fur Elise of the advanced pianists, I wonder?
Most of what they play.
I would say any overblown, substance-free Liszt piece is a candidate.
Trolling again...ain't gonna bite.
It's not trolling, though it was an exaggeration. Many people may be getting the idea that I dislike Liszt. That's not true. I think Liszt was a very inconsistent composer, who wrote some amazing things and some very overblown and dull things. I stick with the pieces I like, and there are plenty of them.
Indeed, I'm surprised to see only this one mention of folk music. There are so many beautiful melodies written -- well actually not written -- by people whose names are forgotten. Melodies that were passed down through generations before ever being transcribed. It makes you wonder how much has been lost.
Nobody has mentioned Rachmaninoff's second symphony, which contains some of his greatest themes. The Adagio and the middle/coda theme of the finale are notable examples.
The beautiful first theme is in the piano part at 1:04. A great passage to play. Another beautiful passage occurs at 6:58. As far as the scherzo is concerned, check out 13:32 - astonishing. The second is possibly the best movement in the piece. At 26:37 is a great melody from the finale.
Except the greaterest Russian composer of them all, the one I referenced earlier, wrote an entire ballet from the piano music of the mere greatest Russian composer.
![[Linked Image]](https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/gallery/42/thumbs/7588.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](https://www.pianoworld.com/forum/gallery/42/thumbs/7589.jpg)