Rachmaninov's Vocalise Op. 34 No. 14 is a 'song without words' and is one of his most popular compositions, existing in countless arrangements.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Rachmaninov admired Chopin and adopted his idea of preludes, but did not copy their form; instead of a sequential order through the circle of fifths, he grouped his 24 preludes into various unrelated sets.
Composition History
The 13 Preludes Op. 32 were composed in 1910, around the time Rachmaninov and Alexander Scriabin, who knew each other from the Moscow Conservatory, began to diverge in their compositional styles.
Composer Biography
Rachmaninov's youth was difficult due to his parents' financial problems, which led to their divorce.
Composer Biography
After settling in the US, Rachmaninov mostly stopped composing, likely due to being busy with concert tours to support his family and suffering from homesickness.
Composition History
The Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42, written in 1931, were Rachmaninov's first work after a 15-year compositional hiatus and his only piano solo work composed after leaving Russia.
Composer Biography
Sergei Rachmaninov left Russia in 1917 during a concert tour to the West and never returned, unlike other Russian composers of his time.
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