Prelude in C-sharp minor Op.3 No.2

Description

A prelude written in 1892, when Rachmaninov was nineteen, as the second of the Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3. It became hugely popular immediately after its Moscow premiere and made his name at once — though he is said to have spent the rest of his life weary of being asked for it as an encore at every concert.

In C-sharp minor and common time, it opens with a heavy three-note motif sounded in the lowest register. That bell-like motif governs the whole piece. In the middle section fast triplets sweep through like a storm, and in the recapitulation the opening motif returns thunderously in four-stave chords before the music sinks away into its own resonance.

Its advanced rating reflects the stamina to sound thick chords in succession and the technique to keep them from turning muddy. Sound the chords by dropping arm weight rather than striking from the fingers, and change the pedal cleanly at every change of harmony. The middle section then requires an abrupt switch from that chordal weight to light figuration.

Preludes by Rachmaninoff, masterworks of Romantic piano music combining deep lyricism with technical brilliance.