Day 15 – Runbinstein Rhapsody…Paganini (CD 15)

Arthur Rubinstein could play chopsticks and I’d sit up and take notice. I’ve developed a keen interest in Rachmaninoff thanks to this set of Fritz Reiner CDs. I never gave the Russian composer a second thought prior to this. But now I’m intrigued, hooked by Rachmaninoff’s ability to write multi-layered music, usually featuring complex piano … [Read more…]

Day 14 – Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 (CD 14)

The first thing I thought when I heard the second movement (Adagio Sostenuto) of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 was, “Gee, this sounds an awful lot like Eric Carmen‘s 1975 song “All By Myself.” So I looked up Carmen’s hit song and, sure enough, discovered Carmen lifted the melody from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concert No. 2 … [Read more…]