Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Prelude in B minor. Lento - Op. 32, No. 10 (1910)
Nikolai Lugansky, 2014 Festival de la Grange de Meslay

Rachmaninoff, 13 Preludes, Op. 32    • Lugansky - Rachmaninoff, 13 Preludes,...  

“The Prelude in B minor Op. 32 No. 10 is Russian to the core. Pianist Benno Moisevitch, in conversation with Rachmaninoff, wisely guessed its emotional wellspring: the yearning for a homecoming that would never come. Its principal motive is a dotted figure, wavering modally between major and minor, that is soon accompanied – and then overwhelmed – by an utterly heartbreaking storm of throbbing triplets that reverberate clangorously like massive swaying church bells, thundering towards a resolution that never arrives.”

Donald G. Gíslason, Vancouver Recital Society