Rachmaninoff: Complete Sonatas and Variations | Zlata Chochieva & Ekaterina Litvintseva

Immerse yourself in the breathtaking world of Sergei Rachmaninoff with this complete collection of his Piano Sonatas and Variations.

Composer: Sergei Rachmaninoff

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The first Piano Sonata and the Chopin Variations suffer unjustly from the fame of their elder brothers (resp. The second Piano Sonata and the Corelli Variations), yet they are truly the works of the same genius, in their broad and expansive romantic language, their pianistic glittering and bravura and their true Russian Soul. Rachmaninoff had become an international celebrity by 1913, when he took his family to live the high life with him in Rome, at a home which Tchaikovsky had once used. In the Italian capital he began work on the imposing Second Piano Sonata, though the work had to be completed back at the family estate, Ivanovka, when his daughters came down with typhus. Rachmaninoff overhauled the Sonata in 1931, cutting and in some places simplifying its form, and it is this version which Litvintseva plays: a stylistic bridge between mid-period and late-style in a composer whose capacity for reinvention has often been underestimated. By 1941 he was an exile living in the US and Switzerland, where he wrote his Variations on a theme of Corelli – the ‘La folia’ theme adopted by countless of his predecessors. Informed by decades of pianistic and creative mastery, Rachmaninoff makes the theme his own with a neoclassical severity and haunting economy of expression.

Tracklist:
Piano Sonata No.1 in D Minor, Op. 28 (Zlata Chochieva):
0:00:00 I. Allegro Moderato
0:12:03 II. Lento
0:20:09 III. Allegro Molto

Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 (Revised Version, 1931) (Ekaterina Litvintseva):
0:34:24 I. Allegro Agitato
0:42:11 II. Non Allegro-Lento
0:48:17 III. L'istesso tempo - Allegro Molto

Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22 (Zlata Chochieva):
0:53:46 I. Largo
0:54:59 II. Moderato
0:55:42 III. Allegro
0:55:57 IV. –
0:56:12 V. –
0:57:02 VI. Meno Mosso
0:57:26 VII. Meno Mosso
0:58:29 VIII. Allegro
0:58:47 IX. –
0:59:08 X. –
0:59:28 XI. Piu Vivo
0:59:58 XII. Lento
1:01:26 XIII. Moderato
1:03:31 XIV. Largo
1:04:46 XV. Moderato
1:06:07 XVI. Allegro Scherzando
1:07:30 XVII. Lento
1:08:38 XVIII. Grave
1:10:12 XIX. Piu Mosso
1:11:03 XX. Allegro Vivace
1:12:14 XXI. Presto
1:13:21 XXII. Andante-Piu Vivo
1:15:58 XXIII. Maestoso—Meno Mosso—Presto

Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 (Ekaterina Litvintseva):
1:20:48 I. Theme. Andante
1:21:46 II. Variation 1. Poco piu Mosso
1:22:35 III. Variation 2. L'istesso Tempo
1:23:15 IV. Variation 3. Tempo di Minuetto
1:23:54 V. Variation 4. Andante
1:24:58 VI. Variation 5. Allegro (Ma non Tanto)
1:25:19 VII. Variation 6. L'istesso Tempo
1:25:43 VIII. Variation 7. Vivace
1:26:14 IX. Variation 8. Adagio Misterioso
1:27:17 X. Variation 9. Un poco piu Mosso
1:28:26 XI. Variation 10. Allegro Scherzando
1:29:06 XII. Variation 11. Allegro Vivace
1:29:29 XIII. Variation 12. L'istesso Tempo
1:30:05 XIV. Variation 12. Adagio
1:30:39 XV. Intermezzo, a tempo Rubato
1:31:55 XVI. Variation 14. Andante (Come Prima)
1:32:51 XVII. Variation 15. L'istesso Tempo
1:34:16 XVIII. Variation 16. Allegro Vivace
1:34:46 XIX. Variation 17. Meno Mosso
1:35:48 XX. Variation 18. Allegro con Brio
1:36:22 XXI. Variation 19. Piu mosso. Agitato
1:36:53 XXII. Variation 20. Piu Mosso
1:38:01 XXIII. Coda. Andante (Ekaterina Litvintseva)

Painting by Isaac Levitan - Over Eternal Peace (1894)