Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 06/07/2008, uploaded on 02/04/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The five pieces of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Morceaux de fantaisie, op. 3 are one of the earliest indications of the composer’s burgeoning mature and individual style. Composed in 1892, the year of his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory, Rachmaninoff dedicated the set of pieces to his harmony professor, Anton Arensky. The work’s title, meaning “fantasy pieces,” alludes to their being, in essence, character pieces, and not to any freedom of form. Indeed, except for the closing “Sérénade,” all embody a regular ternary form.

 Without a doubt, the most famous work from this set of piano pieces is the Prelude in C-sharp minor, which when grouped with Rachmaninoff’s other two sets of preludes (opp. 23 and 32), begins, at least chronologically, his set of preludes in all twenty-four major and minor keys. Playing opener to this well-known piece, however, is the Elégie in E-flat minor. Lone arpeggios of the tonic chord establish the mournful air of the piece. After two measures of introduction, a doleful melody is introduced atop this accompaniment that is consistently pulled downward by the weight of some imagined grief. The ensuing central episode, however, introduces a more agitated state. Against tremolos in the right hand, an ardent melody wells up out of the low register of the piano with a dramatic outlining of a G-flat major chord that spans the interval of a tenth. Propelling the piece’s momentum, this melody brings about a powerful climax that seems to contain both joyful memories and anguish over the departed. Lingering on this moment, the piece eventually makes its way back to the reprise of the opening section by means of a brief cadenza. A final outburst, an anguishing and furious descent through the tonic chord, brings the piece to a close.      Joseph DuBose