Rudolf Friml: Crépuscule (Twilight), Op.36 No.2

1,558 views · Published 27 March 2015 · 3:02 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: PSearPianist · 2015 · Music

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The Czech composer Rudolf Friml (1879-1972) is remembered today for his hugely successful operettas 'The Vagabond King' and 'Rose Marie'. However, he started his professional life as a pianist, having studied piano and composition with Dvorak in Prague - and was still performing as a pianist into his nineties. He moved to the USA in the early 1900s and published several light piano suites there. It is fascinating to trace through them changes in his style from the early Dvorak influences towards the cosmopolitan Hollywood composer he became.  It is fascinating to see elements of Friml's operetta style appearing as early as 1908 in this piece (from a set of three), particularly in the beautiful harmonies in the playout, which reappear frequently in his later works.

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