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Thanks for this wonderful posting ElaineAllegro! I'm still waiting for the green light from my teacher to get started. I'll be meeting with him in less than two weeks. I'm hoping I will have made enough progress with my current assignments that he'll give me the green light to start the Prelude.

In the meantime, I really appreciate your postings. It gives me some ideas of what I might expect when I finally get started.

Does anyone play this in tempo? When Rachmaninoff himself recorded, there were some drastic fluctuations in tempo. Is that how everyone else plays it, or do you play it with a metronome?

I seriously doubt that Rach intended the piece to be played strictly "in tempo." And certainly, practicing with a metronome throughout would be ill advised.

Yes - some pianists perform the piece with significant tempo fluctuations. My personal preference (having lived with this work for almost 60 years now and finally recording it a couple of years ago) is to make a gradual transition to the tempo change in the middle section leading up to the climatic descending chords.

https://youtu.be/Kx_RdoVGBhA

Metronome, what metronome?

Almost every concert pianist speeds up during the passages with running chords in both hands. (I do too, though I'm no concert pianist.) Otherwise, it sounds plodding.......

Good grief! No metronome. That damned thing originally was invented to provide a guide to the composer's choice of tempo, certainly not as the instrument of torture it has too frequently become today. You cannot play a piece of music AS music with a metronome. You'll get an acoustic version of the horrible computerized "programs" ... with all the life sucked right out of it.

The "life" of music is the ebb and flow of dynamics and tempi. The only use for a metronome is either to check the suggested tempo ... or to work out a difficult portion by repeating the notes in strict time. One you can play those notes, then kick the metronome under the piano. And forget about it.

I'm a little uncertain how you feel. Can you please clarify your thoughts on metronomes?

Hi All

When reading this please bare in mind I am not primarily a 'classical' pianist, though my reading is decent and I passed grade 6 many decades ago.

For sheet music I have the Alfred Masterworks edition. A year or two ago I learned the first page (what I call the chord section). This was not that difficult as after a bit of analysis I could see the chords on the page, and didn't have to read all the individual notes.

I then started working on the 2nd section and got up to and including the descending chord climax. This was much more difficult, and after a few months work I got frustrated and then side-tracked and the piece of music accidentally on purpose buried itself.

Having seen this post its inspired me to have another go, so I've found the music again. It would be nice to try and get to the end this time.

I don't ever expect to be able to play this perfectly, particularly after the first page, but would be happy if I could at least get the end imperfectly!

A couple of questions:

1. Bar 51 the opening 2 beats - I don't see how this can be played with only 2 hands?!
2. are there any other non-classical pianists out there with any tips for studying something like this.

That said I'll take any help I can get!

Many thanks

You could do what this pianist does:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKKlhYF53w

Alternatively, just listen to any other YT to hear how other pianists do it without, er.....implements.

You should play this the same way you play measures 53, 27, 28, 31 and 32. Using the sustain/damper pedal, strike the lower notes/chords slightly before the downbeat, then play the upper notes/chords on the downbeat. You'll need to practice the leaps.

Thanks, understood.

Cheers

Happy to help. Good luck !!

I'm going to try recording it with minimal tempo changes in the largo section. I think the key is to keep the sonority of the individual chords interesting, and then it won't get boring. There is a lot you can do with the balance, etc. there.

My idea is that ambient sound can be really quite beautiful just by itself. A glass armonica, or trickling water in a cave.

Secondly when listening to real bells, like the big bell in the cathedral in Vienna, or the haunting bell in Hiroshima, the harmonics can be so rich and varied that a single bell by itself can be a sonic wonderland. I think something of this can be reproduced with this piece. I don't know that I am good enough to do it, but I'll try something of an approximation.

^ and having discovered that, you can go listen to some Oliveros, Cage or Saariaho and have a wonderful time!

I had some very good advice from a teacher once that, for very slow tempos, one must consider the beauty of the piano and the room that one is performing on. For exactly the reasons you say. You can get a wonderland from certain pianos and certain rooms, but others just won't do it, and in those others you have to go a little faster and rely on other interpretive choices.

That's a nice comment, thankyou for posting it.

I finally fulfilled my commitment from three years ago! This is close to my best at my current technique level, I think. Any suggestions or criticisms more than welcome.



As I played this, I really started getting depressed. It's a very somber piece.

Nicely done. If you don't mind I have a couple of suggestions:
- I think your tempos in the first and ending sections are a little fast.
- Try to balance the chords to the top note a little more. This will help give your playing even more brilliance.
- perhaps ease into the tempo change for the middle section. It felt a little jarring. Give yourself time to work up to the descending chords. That would also let the melody sing a little more. I think the time to make a sudden change is coming out of if this section. Notice the A G# C# are half notes instead of quarters.
- I appreciate your regularity of tempo within each section, but it could relax a little; it needs a little more ebb and flow.
- Don't be afraid to show off. Be a full virtuoso; whatever you think is right (within reason) at that moment actually is.

[edit] I forgot to say - all of that is just my opinion. If you or your teacher disagree, go right ahead and ignore me

This is good advice. I have to ask, I am not sure what you mean by this:



Can you explain a bit?

I just mean that you can take more liberty with it. Stretch a note here or there, break before tbe resolution of a climax, just try some things that you imagine only a distinguished virtuoso could get away with. I find it helpful to play a piece like this with very extreme virtuosity and then reign it in.

ok, I will do my best!