Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Var.XVIII - Rachmaninoff

Me playing this beautiful romantic piano piece by Sergei Rachmaninov, composed in 1934, and is probably his most popular and well known composition. This is only the 18th variation of a total of 24! Playing the whole set or rather complete piece is far more of a test it has to be said, this variation stands out from the set of variations though. It has been used in numerous movies, including 'Groundhog Day' and 'Somewhere in Time' (this movie in particular used the music to great emotional effect).

This was quite difficult to play being Rachmaninov thats no surprise as it full of complex harmonies and thick chords. My greatest difficulty was memorising the piece due to large amount of notes Rachmaninov always uses in his music, and the lack of patterns of notes to make it easier to memorise. Its fair to say this took a number of recordings to get it right :)

If you are familiar with the composition on the whole you can hear I use the ending of variation XVII to lead onto the 18th variation, this is just for effect as I think its a sublime part of the variation and leads onto XVIII beautifully.

The theme itself comes from the last of Paganini's twenty-four Caprices Op 1 for solo violin. This piece by Paganini has inspired many other composers to play around with its theme too, such as Brahms, Liszt and even Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Variation XVIII is based on an inversion of Paganini's main motif and is a glorious lyrical outporing.

The version I play in this video is a piano solo arrangement by Robert Schultz, found in an excellent advanced piano transcription book I found many years ago now.

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[flyer3008]

nice. i want to listen to ur own music, stuff that u've created. could ur next one be ur own? please.

[UKpiano]

@flyer3008 I really struggle to write to music, I feel I am no good at it, I can cime up with ideas but cant develop them, and my standards are too high that I set myself thus making it so difficult to come up with something I am happy with. I promise everyone I will try to come up with something though in the near future, thanks for listening as always ;)

[MrPianolee]

excellent performance! This is one of the most beautiful melodies ever written i think- I never get tired of playing this piece.

The Schultz arrangement is the best I've found for solo piano, you really did it justice here- well done!

[poolmisterio]

Oh, so nice

[MrTVERSKOE]

im not watching your video .. im listing how you playing ... yes ...beautiful ,,, so beautiful how you are playing

thanks

[MrJoelWyncott]

I have a great deal of respect for any completely self-taught musician that can play this piece. If I were wearing a hat I'd take it off to you.

[ai1888]

Awestruck! You play it really welL!

[MrJojowasaman]

Well played, very nice work.

[UKpiano]

@Kellybell95 its from a book called '24 Piano Transcriptions of Classical Masterpieces', it can be found on amazon, the arrangements are by Robert Schultz, cheers.

[hthedog]

Very well played! enjoyed very much, thanks for the post and well done!

[TheHumanSpirit]

I would just like to contribute to the litany of overwhelmingly favorable comments -

You play with such majesty....It's beautiful...

Thank you for putting a smile on my face this evening :) Truly inspirational.

Cheers from across the pond, Mark Fowler of the UK!

[sexelby]

@UKpiano I think it's almost like saying to someone whom is fantastic at dancing, to then go and compose a piece of dance to a god standard. Yes some people can, but composition is a completely separate art in itself. Just because you are a fantastic performer like UK piano, does not mean you have the gift of being able to think of a tune. If you are stunning at performance, which you are, then work on that! You may even find that the more you play, the more ideas you get :) x

[sexelby]

You have absolutely excellent technique for self teaching!!! Well done!! Does anyone know where I could get the sheet music for this?

I have to thank you, and this piece greatly. I used to be Grade8/Diploma... And recently I have been suffering with depression, and come to hate the piano immensely. But thanks to this piece and your wonderful playing of it I'm eager to learn it!

Please if anyone knows I'd be so thankful!!!

xxx