Prelude in Eb, no. 6 from Op. 23
4 views · Published 26 March 2016 · 3:35 · Indexed 2 October 2026
Channel: LIMO Recording Studio · 2016 · Music
Prelude no. 6 from Op. 23 Rachmaninoff composed this set of preludes in the Hotel America in 1901-3, financially dependent on his cousin Alexander Siloti, to whom they are dedicated. He never played all of them in one sitting, preferring to cycle through a rotating mix of his favorites. Nonetheless, certain characteristics of the work, such as the recurrence of stepwise motion, common chords between adjacent preludes, and the bookended relationship between the first and last preludes (both marked Largo, with the latter in the parallel major of the former) suggest that the works could be played as a set. Together with Op. 32 and Op. 3, Rachmaninoff's Preludes represent all twenty-four major and minor keys. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoff's compositional output. He made a point of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Even in his earliest works he revealed a sure grasp of idiomatic piano writing and a striking gift for melody.
