Rachmaninov composed almost all of his romances at his estate, Ivanovka, to verses by Russian poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Composer Biography
Sergey Rachmaninov, born in 1873, was considered one of the most accomplished pianists of his time and the only musician since Liszt to excel equally as a composer and conductor.
Composer Biography
Rachmaninov possessed a phenomenal memory, capable of memorizing an entire symphony after a single hearing and then playing it perfectly on the piano.
Compositional Technique
Rachmaninov's romances are characterized by elaborate and expressive piano parts, with the accompaniment sometimes outweighing the vocal part.
Performer Biography
Julia Severus, the pianist on this album, studied with Mikhail Voskresensky and Lev Naumov at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
Recording & Production
This album features several world premiere recordings, indicated by an asterisk in the tracklist.
Historical Context
Piano transcriptions became a fashionable art form after Liszt, allowing symphonic music to be performed even when an orchestra was unavailable.
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