Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Rachmaninoff's 4th Piano Concerto!

This work is brilliant!!!
I can't believe I've not noticed it's genius untill now. Just recently I've been looking deeply into this piece and find it to be strikingly original and fun to listen to! I'm curious as to why you believe it to be not as popular among the general audiences? too much?

Not answering the question, but I only found the Dies Irae theme by looking at the score one day. I was amazed that I'd never heard it before. I thought it's funny how he puts the theme into like every single piece.

I'll have to take a look at it. I remember being very turned off by the first movement and never finished listening to it. Perhaps I'll give it another go.

(*pausing to think, it may have been the 1st concerto that turned me off...now I can't remember which*)

I guess I'll have to go listen to both of them.

I love the 4th Concerto, it has a beautiful 2nd movement. I half-learned it (I can't remember it anymore, hence the half-learned bit heh) last year, it's quite approachable.

Derulux, what the?
The first movement has some of the most beautiful melodies Rachmaninoff ever came up with. The climax is just ridiculously beautiful. I love this concerto..

I have listened to both Wild's and Michelangeli's recordings of this piece. It's really very beautiful, though I think it suffers under the enormous shadow cast by the 2nd and 3rd concerti.

A lot of people don't realise that there is a 4th Concerto, simply because as you say it's overshadowed by the 2/3. But I prefer it in some ways to the 3rd, I think it's more structurally sound.

At the moment I actually prefer his first concerto above the otheres. I love its obvious russian/tchaikovskian sound. I love the opening aswel, and I think the parts where just the orchestra plays are much better than in his other concertos.

I personally feel that the 4th is structurally, technically, and heck why not, musically more sound. I will admit that the 2nd and 3rd are more easy to listen to, and for that reason are obviously more popular with the general public. I'd go as far as to say the beauty in the 4th subtle and well-hidden. It's so interesting!

I think he unsuccessfully tried to incorporate some jazz elements into the concerto.

It is a beautiful work, and I like it a lot, but does it depend on me or is this concerto a LOT different from the others, even closer to film music, more for a good sphere/atmosphere whatever it's called during relaxing dinners etc.? And the piano doesn't seem to play such an important role in the melody as in the previous 3 concertos....

but after all it's still one of my favorites

Valentina Lisitsa's recording of the work is awesome too!

I'll have to give that a listen, thanks.
I've got Ashkenazy's recording, I enjoy it.

I've heard maybe 15 recordings of this work and I've never heard anyone match Earl Wild's playing of it.

Michelangeli/Gracis and a Berezovsky bootleg from Feb. 16 2006 are a close second in my opinion(not too close though ).

All that said, I don't find it to be a particularly successful concerto. It's definitely pleasant, but it's nowhere near the quality of the rest of his concerti.

I have an old Rach recording on my computer (I think it's Rach, lol), and it's a really wonderful concerto. I love the very beginning, because it's the first time I've heard Rach toy with syncopation/broken rhythms, and he DOES try to pull off some jazz aspects, making it sound very strange but subtly interesting. Like Stalin meets B. B. King. I need to find the 2nd and 3rd movements too, I just have the 1st from somewhere.

Btw, what's the Dies Arie theme?

The Dies Irae theme was originally a 13th century Latin hymn in Gregorian plainchant. The words mean "day of wrath". It was part of the Roman Catholic Requiem or Mass of the Dead. It was most famously used in Liszt's Totentanz and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Puckett,

That Ashkenazy Rachmaninoff set was a great bargain! I wanted to familiarize myself with the first concerto so I bought it and people had recommended it for the second concerto. I wouldn't put any of them on my top list but I enjoy going through the set.

Iamc,
I'll checkout the Wild. Do you have any favorite recordings of the Prokofiev 6, I prefer it over the 7th.

Where is Deis Irae in Rhapsody on a Theme? I just played the melody on my piano, but it doesn't sound very familiar. Btw, alto clef is hard
lol

What about Stephen Hough's recording of it?

In the Rhapsody, he only uses the first part of the theme, but it's all over the place. It's basically the countertheme to the Paganini theme. The theme makes its first introduction in Variation 7 on the piano.