Rachmaninoff conducts his "Isle of the Dead", Part I

[psykoesj]

Rachmaninoff was the best... seamlessly incorporates various older styles with new. I also love how well he can transition feelings/melodies throughout his songs in a fresh, truely progressive way.

[hashalibi]

IN Awe!!! Terrific!

[meetdiamond]

T H I S piece is amazing. it [almost wickedly] tickles my soul.

[iorixs]

death approaches slowly like a boat rowing towards an island. death - the end of this ridiculous world. a long hopeful lullaby

[CLASSICALFAN100]

And, just this past April, the great Philadelphia Orchestra went bankrupt!! Rach himself called them "the greatest orchestra in the world", and he should know! Culturally, how far has the American public fallen, in 'way in less than 50 years!! Read the book, "Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music" by Blair Tindall, for more "amazing facts"...

[jelleepit]

This is my favourite peice of music ever! I especially love the section when you can just hear the faultering heart beat of the Basses and then the solo violin sparkles into heart yearning sadness (the composer himself I think) so sad but the hopeful key at the end is a fitting end to a truly genius work.

[SunSerenity]

What a treasure! I love this piece quite a time but hearing this a bit different version just as Rachmaninov himself intended it is beyond wonderful. Thank you so much!

[willisillu]

C'est fort , quelle puissance quelle force musicale !!!!

Sa musique colle à 100% avec la peinture de l'artiste BÔCKLIN l'île aux morts.

[honey88foru]

I think I'm going to like Rachmaninoff.

[dillia2011]

Thanks! It is really awesome! Like the painting of Arnold Böcklin that inspired him!

[kinoglas]

Magnifique! Merci!

[ysbaddaden2003]

Personally, I always thought Night on Bald Mountain should be used as The Bat-Man theme.

Like Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture or the Lone Ranger, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebees for the Green Hornet, and Franz Liszt - Les Préludes as both the interval music for the Lone Ranger, and the main theme for the Flash Gordon serials with Buster Crabbe.

[WAMEDJO]

@ysbaddaden2003

Why do you want to associate old good music with bad contemporary films ? What if I wanted to hear teenage pop songs (his name doesn't deserve to be quoted here) on "Citizen Kane" or "Rebel Without a Cause" ? 

[ysbaddaden2003]

Ynys Avallach?

[bryan21tx]

This piece is beyond the content of Harry Potter. It has to do with life and death, acceptance of fate, and the story of a the orsman that rows through the depths of the river styx to an unmarked dark isle of death and despair. No knock on movies or pop culture. Rachmaninoff did film score, so it's easy to think of his music in other settings.

[domukaz]

@bryan21tx How does any of that put the piece beyond the content of Harry Potter? Where's your argument?

[stewiestrapon]

firstly, i hate the Harry Potter films. the later books are alright, but the films are just awful.

saying that, composers don't really make much in their lifetime, even ones as great as Rachmaninoff whose income wasn't dependant on composing, and as such, if he was alive and approached by the Harry Potter film directors and asked permission to use this, he would have accepted providing they offered him enough money. the only way to make a living as an artist is to sell your work.

[PeacfulJoh]

I can just see the spirits!

[ysbaddaden2003]

@PeacfulJoh

Smirnoff or Monopolowa?

[beeteep60]

what cd is this on?

[leohenrimartin]

It's on an RCA CD "Rachmaninoff Conducts Rachmaninoff" along with his Symphony #3 & Vocalise. Available on Amazon(dot)com. By the way, according to Peter Schickele, it's in 5/4 time. Rachmaninoff observed that a person rowing a small boat naturally pulls at the oars for a count of two, but takes a count of three to raise the oars and dip them back into the water for the next stroke, and so he chose 5/4 for the depiction of Charon rowing out to the Isle of the Dead.

[hellote12]

@leohenrimartin 5/8, i believe.

[19andoverlol]

@hellote12

Yes, the time signature of most of the piece is in 5/8, alternating between 2-3 groupings and 3-2 groupings.

[hellote12]

@19andoverlol

Personally, I believe its an easy signature to count, since it mirrors breathing patterns. Clever, Sergei.

[irmina1]

Rachmaninoff's music is absolutely beautiful! He is my favorite composer

[funnyhoneybee]

WHOA, art snobs. I went to art school, too, but I don't begrudge anyone their preference. Recognizing unusual skill and enjoying something because it genuinely appeals to you are two very different and equally valid human capabilities. I can recognize "real" art and still love the heck out of the lamest romantic comedy. It's not the downfall of society, folks: It's the beauty of individualism and the differing tastes that accompany it.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

IF this is so, why has modern art become a modern fraud?

[Paradise737]

@19andoverlol:

Let me remind you that "The Cave" scene (which is the scene I was talking about) is anything but childish--the cave in question is host to a large number of dead bodies that have been enchanted to do a villain's bidding. I f that's not "sombre, murkey, and ominous," I don't know what is.

[ivybenson]

Thanks, fredslu, I love this piece; it sounds even more magical conducted by Rachmaninoff himself.

[19andoverlol]

It does sound like something that would fit in a movie...I wouldn't want to see it in Harry Potter, though. It just wouldn't feel right, in my opinion. The piece is sombre, murky, ominous. Harry Potter is written in a light-hearted style, and sometimes almost feels like a children's series with all of its wizardry and magic. It requires its own soundtrack, as do most movies based on fictional books.

[izmirodessa89]

a perfect track and a perfect artists... it should be a soundtrack of a wargame or a war film... the good shepherd, or the downfall- would be so ironic. a track of a russian artist for a film about the german downfall... i cannot see another thing-subject that would fit so perfect...

[domukaz]

@izmirodessa89 Ironic? Paging Alanis Morissette. Would I ordinarily expect German music to accompany the German downfall?

Also ... stop ... using ... ellipses.

[Paradise737]

I think this would be the perfect piece to play in "The Cave" scene in the upcoming Harry Potter movie.

[blackcheesyghoul]

shut it up

if you cant see farther than harry potter

ye got a pitiful imagination

[Paradise737]

I'm not sure whether you're insulting my taste in music, or my taste in fandoms.

Anyway, I've played this piece (Isle of the Dead) before, so I'm a proficient muscian; and I've also studied Harry Potter film scores, but I'm also highly knowledgeable of dozens of other film scores, and I have a more diverse taste in franchises than just Harry Potter. So why don't YOU shut it up?

[nomsdufrere]

hey paradise737, it is really pitiable that you can even put this music piece together with Harry Potter.Some things just are not meant to be mentioned one next to another, you know what I mean? Even WORSE if you played this, too bad for Rachmaninov himself.

[Paradise737]

Why is it pitiable to suggest that this piece would sound good accompanying a certain scene in a future Harry Potter movie? Neither you or blackcheesyghoul have supplied any reasoning behind your opinions, and until you do, I'm going to regard you as a common internet troll.

[nomsdufrere]

The pitiable part is that you conducted this piece as you claim. If you really did then I am worried about the future of music. Rachmaninov's music has something to it that Harry Potter lovers will never be able to understand. This message probably will not teach anything to you, but any person with decent taste would be ashamed of bringing Rachmaninov's music down to Harry Potter. Hard to explain if you already don't perceive it.

[Paradise737]

Why is Harry Potter so bad? Have you read all 7 books with an open mind? If not, then please stop acting as if you do.

If you HAVE read all 7, then I don't see why it's so hard to agree that Isle of the Dead would be highly complementary music to play along with the movie adaptation of "The Cave" scene. My or your opinion about the past Harry Potter movies should be irrelevant; I never implied that the Harry Potter movies or the music in them is as good as the art that Rachmaninoff created.

[nomsdufrere]

I just remembered why Harry Potter books are bad. Because they don't wish to change the world for the better and because they flatter the taste of the common. Every book like this may not compare itself to Rachmaninov. Once upon a time, art had more dignity than it did today, so one could hardly be a performer and not know this basic quality that all masterpieces have in common. In any genre of human activity.

[Paradise737]

We seem to be discussing two fundamentally different things.

I am not an expert on Rachmaninoff as you seem to be, and Isle of the Dead is the only piece of his that I've played. Maybe if I knew more about him, I wouldn't dare mention him along with Harry Potter.

As it is, I like this piece and I think it would sound great accompanying a scene in an upcoming Harry Potter movie. I am not trying to make any grand statements about art by saying that.

(>continued)

[Paradise737]

The thing we seem to actually disagree on is whether Harry Potter qualifies as art, or simply as entertainment. You'll never hear me argue that J.K. Rowling is as good an artist as Rachmaninoff (again, I barely know anything meaningful about Rachmaninoff), but it's infuriating trying to argue anything in a Youtube comment box. On that note, I would love to continue this discussion in a PM, if you so please.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

Have you ever heard of the expression,

Don´t throw pearls before swine?

Don´t degenerate Rachmaninoff into popular commercialism.

[Paradise737]

I wasn't degenerating Rachmaninoff into popular commercialism.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

When one suggests that Rachmaninoff would make a good music for a Harry Potter film- that´s commercial prostitution.

[mahler151]

It's like how they've ruined many other classical masterpieces by making them the theme to overrated lame movies.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

Of course, you are absolutely right.

[DJPsionix]

I'll put it on top of an Akon or Rihanna clip and you'll get the idea.

Or gay horse porn or something.

[domukaz]

@DJPsionix Doing that wouldn't sully Rachmaninoff, nor would it elevate Akon, Rihanna, or gay horse porn. It would be incongruous, though.

[domukaz]

@nomsdufrere So bad art isn't to be mentioned beside or combined with good art? Cervantes will be pissed.

[MGWssn]

Yay petty bickering about insignificant things!

[nomsdufrere]

It is hardly insignificant when the concept of art is in question. I am a philosophy professor who specializes in aeshetics, and it is very well known that kitsch and art are not clearly distinguished today. Harry Potter is and will remain only entertainment. Even though it "fits" it is hardly the same. And if real art is supposed to teach us something, the first thing we should know is how to recognize it.

[Darinor]

Who decided that there should be a wall between entertainment and art? Imho art is something that touches your feelings, make you feel something, and i think that the Harry Potter books touches the kids that they are intended for, and make them think. Yes they are entertaining, but does that exclude them from being art? Art is subjective in my mind.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

Very well said, but too little understood.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

I can only wish that you arrive at the point where you can distinguish between kitsch and art.

Some would try to convince you that kitch is art, and that is the point in which you must apply your highest principals.

Sometimes the principals don´t need to be that high either.

[domukaz]

@nomsdufrere Art doesn't teach us anything. Or did you mean "and if real art is supposed to teach us anything"?

In which college? What philosophy professor is wasting his time on the famously stupid YouTube comments threads?

[ClemsonMusic]

Wow. You guys are being way too critical. I think Rachmaninoff's music is almost otherwordly, it's so moving and emotional. But I also think that it would sound good in "The Cave" scene, and that's not insulting Rachmaninoff or Harry Potter. It'd be upgrading the current score by a thousand times, but hey, if the song fits...which it does, then why argue it?

[mrmolinodelahoz]

When one suggests that Rachmaninoff is suitable as background music for a Harry Potter filmm this is commercial prostitution

In response to Paradise737.

[Paradise737]

You're putting words in my mouth - I never implied that Isle of the Dead should be downgraded to a simple piece of background music.

Tell me, why do you think that Rachmaninoff's art was inherently better than other art? Do you think Rachmaninoff would agree with you that his music is too good to be even associated with Harry Potter? Well?

[EdiEllerymissing]

Rachmaninoff would probably doesn't even care about that kind of association. He was an artist. I like Harry Potter for what it is, but it's not art, like Rachmaninoff's music... Millions of arguments about that, to much to say it in 500 characters, but trust me, Harry Potter is good, but it's not art, Rachmaninoff's music is!

[pookiehohn]

I think it's good to expose the masses to more refined music. It's not like it degrades the music. Comparing music to prostitution is rather silly anyways.

[ahaili]

we're playing this piece in concert! i love it so much! i'm playing bass trombone.

[gaiu76]

unbelievable piece of music;

i'm from romania (moldova), but when i heard it for the first time at 22-23, it has brought me back the scent of my entire childhood :)

[abigailmae951]

This is beautiful, one of my favorite Rachmaninov peices. Thank you for putting this up!

[LJBSasha]

Very interesting to hear Rakhmáñinov's own interpretation - the sole trouble is that it's riddled with cuts, alas!!! That's why I can't give it a full 5 stars. [The blame lies with the neo-classicists and anti-romantics of the time who hated what he stood for and pressured him into cutting his works (against his will!!) so as to be "a little better form-wise!!" - may those nincompoops be accursed for all eternity!!!!]

[zetetic0void]

may those nincompoops be accursed for all eternity!!!!

-----------

I can envision them now being rowed across the river Styx to Hades by Charon accompanied by this music!

[mrmolinodelahoz]

Please inform me. It is hard to believe that Rachmaninoff would take the advice on anyone to make cuts rather than depend on his own inate musical sense.

I only know one version of this work, but it is possible that some cuts are not noticable.

[LJBSasha]

I wish I could give you specific examples of people who would pressure him that way; however, there's much I don't know. What I read years ago in various sources still stands (how one wishes the quotations were remembered for later); furthermore, the very nature of the cuts (compare this version with either Priwin or Ashkenazy! - or what's posted here - and check with the score!) points in that direction. [Those cuts are quite noticeable once you know the full uncut 'Urtext'!!]

[Paradise737]

Thanks so much for posting this!

[kspm01]

A true masterpiece; thank you for sharing Rachmaninov's own unique interpretation!