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12 March, 2017

Off the Scale #2 - Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Number 2

Good afternoon!

To follow up the first part of my series exploring some of my favourite classical music pieces, I thought I'd take a look at one that has been dancing with Ralph Vaughn Williams "Lark Ascending" on Classic FM's Hall of Fame for quite some time now.

This particular piece is one of my all time favourites due to the way the piano seems to lead the charge but at the same time is not averse to taking a bit of a back seat as the arrangement kicks in fully with the stringed instruments...

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Number 2



As I said in the first part, I'm not here to review it, I'm here to talk a little bit about why I like such a piece as this. But firstly, here it is: -


If you have survived that one and believe me you need patience to do so (something that this modern chart stuff knows nothing about) then well done you and you need to give yourself a round of applause!

No, seriously!

I like the way this piece, like so many others in my collection seems to have this ethereal power that, as it plays, seems to command me to stop what I'm doing and "chill the heck out", as it were. I find also that so few artists are able to do that the way Evgeny Kissin does and that Kissin's playing style is rather charming and... wait, I'm delving into a review there and that's not what this is supposed to be, lol!

I find that, along with next time's piece, this is one that is a sure fire way to calm me down after a particularly stressful day. I will also be mentioning, in future Off the Scale posts, Beethoven's 14th Piano Sonata aka. the "Moonlight" Sonata & George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".

For now, if you've read to the end without watching Evgeny perform then, seriously, what's wrong with you?! :-P

You need to go back and listen to it, or listen again if you already have!

Trust me, you won't regret it; you might even learn a bit of patience in the process! ;-)

Peace!


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