KLAVIER & CO Klaviermusik von Rachmaninow 2023

The son of a Russian landowner, Sergei Rachmaninov was one of the most successful pianists in music history and a versatile composer in the late Romantic style. After the October Revolution in 1917, he lived mainly in the USA and Switzerland. Plagued by bouts of manic depression throughout his life, composing was also a form of self-therapy for him. Deeply melancholic and hymn-like sequences can be found again and again in his music, which, with a masterful command of technique, continues the Russian tradition, which was also influenced by Beethoven and Chopin, with melodic power, surprisingly new tone colours and often insistent rhythms. Rachmaninov's piano works demand supple virtuosity of interpretation and are full of sensual sensitivity and colourful splendour. Almost all of the composer's solo piano works, including the famous Preludes, were written during his Russian period.