Rachmaninoff, Prelude Op 23 No 5

 
The resounding failure of Sergei Rachmaninoff's First Symphony left the 24-year-old Russian composer dealing with a deep depression. His friends, fearing that at any moment he would make a fatal decision, advised him to put himself in the hands of a specialist in "life failures", that is, a "doctor of the soul".

After long months undergoing sessions of autosuggestion and hypnosis led by a prominent figure of the time, the young Sergei managed to get out of the quagmire. Shortly after, in the mid-1900s, he left for Italy, where he would slowly regain his peace in the picturesque coastal town of Varazze, near Genoa.

Natalie
Such was the degree of recovering his soul that only two years later, he decided to marry. But he did not go all over Moscow to find her soul mate. It was enough to look around him, putting his eyes on a cousin whom he had met two years ago, Natalie Alexandrovna Satina.

A difficult liaison
Of course, the relationship between lovers was enormously complicated. Not only did they have to face the rejection of both families but, forced by the laws of the time, they had to request various dispensations, including that of the Tsar. Finally, they managed to overcome all obstacles and were married in April 1902. Against all odds, they lived immensely happy for the rest of their days.

The Preludes
Following in the footsteps of Bach, Chopin and Scriabin, the Russian composer wrote 24 Preludes throughout his life, although scattered in three different opuses. The series began with the popular Prelude in C minor, a youth work belonging to opus 3. Then came the ten preludes to opus 23, written between 1901 and 1902. Sergei will end the cycle with the thirteen preludes to opus 32, composed around 1910.

Prelude Opus 23 No 5
Prelude No. 5, opus 23, is presented here. Its form is similar to the traditional tripartite rondo, with an initial section "A" marked Alla marcia, which is followed by a more lyrical and melancholic section "B" accompanied by arpeggios on the left hand (1:30), then, a transition to the original tempo and finally the recap of the opening section (2:40). The work ends without fuss with short arpeggios that finish off pianissimo.

The rendition is by the Russian maestro Emil Gilels, born in 1916 in Odessa and died in Moscow in 1985. Although less known, Gilels is part of the select group of great pianists of the 20th century, along with Arrau, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Benedetti Michelangeli and Sviatoslav Richter.