Liu Yuntian - Complete Collection of Rachmaninoff Piano Preludes (2023) Hi-Res

Sergei Rachmaninov is one of the great Russian pianists in history and one of the best Russian conductors of that era. He is also the successor to the "powerful group" in the Russian composition system. After the Five Great Composers and Peter Tchaikovsky, he is regarded as a representative figure among the late Russian Romantic composers together with Alexander Scriabin. His representative works include a large number of piano solo works including three symphonies, four piano concertos and "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", two piano sonatas and twenty-seven piano preludes.

Between the 19th and 20th centuries, the piano prelude became an established genre, whether it was a Baroque fugue (Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms) or the more common stand-alone prelude. It can be extended to twenty-four suites in all major and minor keys, following the incomparable pattern of the Chopin Preludes (Op. 28) (Twenty-Five by Heller, Scriabin and Busoni, or Alkan and Guy). It was agreed that the Prelude is a short, non-formulaic piece that is not overtly attached to dance conventions or any other primary mood, thus leaving considerable scope for interpretation by both performer and audience. Functionally, the prelude can be an elegant calling card at a private evening or the main or encore piece at a piano recital.
Rachmaninoff's twenty-seven preludes mainly belong to the latter type. These Preludes make full use of the full-size, industrial-strength concert grand piano, allowing it to fill all but the largest concert halls with orchestral power. Although their opening bars are often striking, many of the tracks' textures are gradually released to stunning effect. It is a physical and musical challenge for even the greatest performers, and the same applies to the arenas of recitals and international competitions in conservatories.
Scriabin's Twenty-Four Preludes (Op. 11) have a strong Chopin style and rarely exceed two pages in length, while Rachmaninoff's works are influenced by Liszt and are generally at least two pages in length. Twice as much as Chopin. While Scriabin's late Preludes tend toward the ethereal and mystical, Rachmaninoff's Preludes are almost entirely the domain of emotional outpourings, exploring the poetics of heroic struggle and longing.
The Prelude in C sharp minor illustrates these qualities in language that is difficult to misinterpret. In the autumn of 1892, he won the coveted gold medal when he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory of Music and signed a publishing contract with Gutey Company. From Rachmaninoff's London premiere in 1899 to his last performance before his death, this piece became Rachmaninoff's most popular piece in almost every recital - usually as an encore. Repertoire played. Lisztian chimes call attention, while pauses and layered textures give time to savor the overtone mixture of superimposed chords. Rachmaninoff's gift for producing maximum effect with minimum content was a characteristic of Rachmaninoff's music, but this characteristic was quickly vilified by some early critics, and eventually, listeners found themselves at home When I could recreate this basic effect on my own piano, I became even more irresistible to his music. Numerous adaptations and republications brought him no financial reward. Yet even as jazz versions began to appear, he still listened with gusto. When a female admirer sent him a postcard asking whether the piece described "the pain of being nailed in a coffin while alive," he did not disappoint. Whatever the composer's associations with this piece, without the emotional entanglement of the middle lyrical part, this piece would not have become a Rachmaninoff classic.
Ten years later, Rachmaninoff returned to the genre, overcoming a two-year writer's block to compose his Second Piano Concerto. The ten preludes in Rachmaninoff's Preludes (Opus 23), composed between 1901 and 1903, fully reflect the harmony and piano style of the work. If the state of the soul that Rachmaninov explores in this body of work requires emotional fuel, he can easily find it in his own past - the joy of growing up in a privileged environment, the trauma of being separated from home twice, the first time It was due to his father's extravagant spending, and another time to failure in all exams due to laziness. The product of these factors is intense nostalgia. At the same time, due to the strict requirements of Nikolai Zverev and later the guidance of Alexander Siloti, Rachmaninoff's cousin and Liszt's student, he Gradually mastered the most exquisite piano skills at that time. Despite Rachmaninoff's reluctance to do his homework, he appears to have learned equally solid compositional skills from Russia's greatest master of counterpoint, Sergei Taneyev, a pupil of Tchaikovsky. As a result, he was able to compose the most gorgeous and opulent compositions without resorting to superficial effects-heaping.
The prelude at the beginning of Op. 23 establishes three prototypes for the entire set of works. The sighing theme of the slow No. 1 in F sharp minor outlines the tone of melancholy and introspection; while the gorgeous arpeggios, indomitable chords and gorgeous coda of the fast No. 2 in B flat major are filled with determination to overcome all adversity; The Minuet Tempo No. 3 in D minor is somewhere between the two extremes, with its focus on restrained neoclassicism that can be transformed into introversion or extroversion at will. The next four preludes follow the pattern of these three opening preludes. No. 4 is a Schumannian wordless song - comparable to Schumann's Romance (Op. 28) 2 - while the famous No. 5 in G minor combines soft lyricism with radical energy. Fusion; the neo-baroque stage needs to wait, while the sighing lyrical Prelude No. 6 in E-flat major once again demonstrates Rachmaninoff's mastery of decorative accompaniment. The Bach-like toccata style of Prelude No. 7 in C minor reaches its extreme and is breathtaking. The last three preludes in Opus 23 are not depressing. The Prelude No. 8 in A flat major insists on the right-hand sound pattern tenaciously and skillfully like Chopin's etudes, while the double notes of the Prelude No. 9 in E flat minor are from Liszt's "Transcendental Etude". Reappearance of Feux follets. Finally, the Adagio No. 10 in G flat major avoids ending with a climax, but reinterprets the sigh of the F sharp minor prelude at the beginning, ending the whole work calmly.
Unlike Chopin, Scriabin, or even Shostakovich, Rachmaninov did not systematically arrange his preludes according to key. In fact, it is not clear when Rachmaninoff decided to complete the composition of the twenty-four preludes, but he had clearly decided on this path when he composed the thirteen preludes in Op. 32 in 1910 . This was written after his Piano Concerto No. 3. However, there are enough informal tonal relationships between the successive preludes, especially in Op. 32, with eight preludes paired in opposite modes, and there is sufficient variation in tempo and mood continuity. , therefore, playing each set of preludes or even all twenty-four preludes as a unit is a realistic option for any pianist brave enough.
The first "Finger Warm-up" in C major is usually placed at the beginning of this type of music, but now it becomes the starting point of the Prelude No. 32. This Prelude doesn't soar as violently as its counterpart in Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, but it's certainly a challenge, especially as it presents the ascending theme as a riff on Rachmaninov's usual verge A kind of balance in the decline of death. Swinging Sicilian rhythms, an unexplored neoclassical archetype, now form the main thread of Prelude No. 2 in B flat minor, a piece built on two accelerated "waves" that, however, "Bo" failed to get rid of the basic melancholy, nor could it avoid ending in the mood of compromise.
However, the lively Allegro Prelude No. 3 in E major breaks free in another neo-Bachian "aerobics", almost like a recent solo version of the Brandenburg concerto. There may even be shades of a jig behind its sombre successor, the Prelude No. 4 in E minor, whose contrasting sighing timbre finally finds its due in the languid center section. Following the swinging and ecstatic melody of the Prelude No. 5 in G major, we see for the first time a gratifying lyricism in Op. 32. By contrast, the turbulent No. 6 in F minor is filled with angry passion. Of all Rachmaninoff's preludes, the closest to joyful playfulness is the almost affable Prelude No. 7 in F major. Prelude No. 8 in A minor is the prelude to the "Music and Painting Etudes" in the same key in Op. 39. It is full of ruthless driving force, as if facing the wind and rain. Prelude No. 9 further shifts into the opposite mode, weaving another gorgeous tapestry with the threads of the sigh theme. Next come two Sicilian-based pieces: the slow Prelude No. 10 in B minor, with its powerful contrasting sections, and the faster, more restrained Prelude No. 11 in B major.
"Prelude No. 12 in G sharp minor" is the last and most popular encore in the whole set of music. Its harp-like image is like the water flowing on the windowpane of a Russian villa. Finally, the Prelude No. 13 in D flat major ends again, this time returning to the C sharp minor key of Opus No. 3; thanks to the addition of Sicilian rhythms, sighing motives, minuet, accelerated middle section and deafening chord climax, it also has a certain summative quality. Rachmaninoff ends the piece with his almost unique hand-stretching technique, which seems to be a hallmark of his piano virtuosity.

This "Complete Collection of Rachmaninoff Piano Preludes" performed by teacher Liu Yuntian includes three rare preludes by Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff composed a total of twenty-seven preludes during his lifetime. Preludes, all for piano solo, these three works were never published during his lifetime. The first is his first attempt in this field, the Prelude in E flat minor, one of the four pieces he composed in 1887; the second is his arrangement of an F major for cello and piano in July 1891 Prelude; the last one is a posthumous work composed by Rachmaninoff in 1917.

Pianist Liu Yuntian is a Chinese pianist living in the United States, a global Chinese pianist with Huaxia Qinying, the first doctor of piano performance from the Central Conservatory of Music, a teacher in the piano department of Xinghai Conservatory of Music, a member of the Chinese Musicians Association, and a member of the Guangdong Provincial Musicians Association.
Liu Yuntian is the youngest gold medal winner in the history of the "China Music Golden Bell Award", the Chinese player who won the highest honor of the "Horowitz International Piano Competition", and was included in the "Belgian Elisabeth", known as the most prestigious piano competition in the music industry. A Chinese pianist in the history of "Queen's International Piano Competition". Liu Yuntian studied at Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Park University in the United States, Lake Como Piano Academy in Italy, and the Central Conservatory of Music. He studied under Li Song, Zhu Lin, Xie Xiaohe, Popova, and Stanislav Iodani. Stanislav Ioudenitch, William Grant Naboré, and Professor Wei Danwen. He has won the Piano Gold Medal of the 4th China Music Golden Bell Award, second place in the Horowitz International Piano Competition, Memorial Award for the Finals of the Queen Elizabeth International Piano Competition, first place in the Performer Group of the 2nd Singapore International Piano Competition, in 2017, Outstanding Musician of Guangdong Province in 2022, selected for the Youth Cultural Talent Project of the "Special Support Plan" of the Propaganda Department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee in 2019.