Rachmaninoff: 13 Preludes, ( Hayroudinoff, Ashkenazy, Various)

Rachmaninoff s preludes are spectacular, but in the preludes he outdoes himself: these are even more bewilderingly exploratory in harmony, even more in love with staggering contrasts, even more colourfully contrapuntal. No. 1 A dense, brooding firecracker that s built almost entirely around rising themes. No. 2 A cunning combination of siciliano rhythm with neoRomantic harmony: two successive waves of accelaration don t quite manage to shake off the essentially resigned tone of this work. No. 3 A gorgeous little gem, which sounds like it might be from a lost Brandenburg Concerto. No. 4 A lovely exploration of contrasts: you have them in the opening motif itself, and then a languorous middle leads back into a storm of ecstatic violence. No. 5 Melting lyricism, and a surprisingly restrained harmonic palette. Like a tired afternoon on a hot summer day. No. 6 A restless, relentless, roiling thing, with passages occasionally slouching up from the coils of