Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 5 - Denis Matsuev 1st mov part I

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Denis Matsuev performs the Russian Premiere of Rachmaninoff's piano concerto no 5 together with Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia. This event took place in Moscow the 2nd February 2009. This Arrangement was made by Alexander Warenberg. -- You can buy the disc at

http://www.amazon.com/Rachmaninoff-Piano-Concerto-Based-Symphony/dp/B0015XAT1Q

What if Rachmaninoff's most popular symphony were rewritten, as a piece for piano and orchestra? In the hands of a contemporary Russian composer, Rachmaninoff's second symphony has now become his Piano Concerto No. 5.

St. Paul, Minn. — In 2000, Dutch producer Pieter Van Winkel let his imagination run free while listening to one of his favorite works, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.

"Listening to the second symphony, I could never ignore the fact that somehow I imagined the sound of the piano," Van Winkel said. "Then I thought, what would happen if you actually make a concerto from this gorgeous piece of music?"

Van Winkel posed the idea to his former piano teacher, Russian composer Alexander Warenberg. At first, Warenberg was completely flabbergasted at the notion. After pondering the idea a little longer he decided it could be done.

The first step in developing this new concerto was to acquire permission from Rachmaninoff's estate. According to Van Winkel, gaining permission was easier than they anticipated.

"We actually went to the grandson of Rachmaninoff, Mr. Alexander Rachmaninoff, who lives in the beautiful villa on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, where Rachmaninoff composed a lot of his works. We went there and proposed the idea, and he was very enthusiastic," said Van Winkel.

Warenberg finished the first draft of the solo piano part in just six months. He spent the next two years on the orchestration, working sometimes 22 hours a day.

"He changed a lot in this symphony because the original symphony has four movements, and he wanted to make it into a proper piano concerto which usually has three movements," Van Winkel explained. "He combined the second movement and the third movement and made them one movement, the adagio. So he actually combined the two."

Warenberg wrote the entire work in the style of Rachmaninoff. He says every note of his could be Rachmaninoff's. The modifications he made are designed to improve sound and balance.

With this composition, Warenberg is allowing pianists to get closer to one of the greatest symphonies ever written.

The pianist in this world premiere performance, Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy, says it's a great feeling to play the wonderful first theme of the second movement.

What's most important to Schmitt-Leonardy is the fact that there is now a new Romantic piano concerto that contains so much of Rachmaninoff's universe, combined with brilliant new inventions by a contemporary composer.

Schmitt-Leonardy also loves the idea that there's no traditional way to play this piece. Each performance can bring something novel to this work.

Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy believes many composers are so busy being faithful to the text of a score they forget to love it. That's what makes this concerto such a treasure.

Alexander Warenberg used his heart as well as his head when he wrote it. By loving it, he remained faithful to it. What started as a pie-in-the-sky idea has resulted in what could be a valuable new addition to the Romantic piano repertoire.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rachmaninoff
• piano
• concerto
• no
• Alexander
• Warenberg
• Denis
• Matsuev
• Vladimir
• Spivakov
• National
• Philharmonic
• Orchestra
• of
• Russia
• 2nd
• February
• 2009
• Moscow
• Сергей
• Васильевич
• Рахманинов
• Александр
• Варенберг
• Денис
• Мацуев
• Владимир
• Спиваков

[Vampianist3]

This transcription is magnificent! I can't help but listen to it nearly eveyday. My Itouch showed that within couple f months I have listened to the whole concerto about 1400 times. I've been looking for the piano score for a long time, does anyone have it?

[SergRach1]

@Vampianist3 Boosey & Hawkes! :)

[myfmhighlights]

I really oppose the idea of calling it "Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #5" because in no way is it a Rachmaninoff piano concerto. With that said this is a wonderfully beautiful transcription true to the style of Rachmaninoff.

[keybawd]

First of all Thanks for posting. Extremely interesting but in the end I think the arrangement is horrible and does no service at all to the symphony. The piano writing often sounds more like Bath's Cornish Rhapsody or The Warsaw Concerto, sometimes it's simply meretricious. The piano & orchestra version of the Dminor piano trio is far superior as a "new" Rachmaninov concerto.

[belegSJ]

@1Thompsonmusic Well I didn't exactly command you to listen to her, did I? I only said that I enjoy the solo performance more, and as there is only one solo performance in YouTube (Lisitsa's) I recommended hers. I might be wrong, though - I haven't checked the entire YouTube for solo performances of this concerto...

And by the way, Valentina is amazing. :P But that's just my opinion.

[bervy8]

OMG, is he reading from sheet music?

[lucas6153]

Awesome! I didn´t know that this transcription exists. Symphony 2, the best than others. (FROM ARG)

[lucas6153]

Awesome! I didn´t know that this transcription exist. Symphony 2, the best than others. (FROM ARG)

[mostrodav]

This piece was originally a simphony (2 in E minor sorry). I always think in the simphony like a masterpiece, but the work of Warenberg in the transcription is equally great. Probably he doesn´t give anything new, but i think it´s just like Rachmaninoff should do if he wanted a piano concerto. Many people don´t like the idea of a piano concerto with a pice wich originally wasn´t. I think that many composers incluiding Rach take pieces from others and make variations and other works.