According to this book, a young Rachmaninoff visited an elderly Tolstoy in 1900. He played some music for him, and hoped for some encouraging words from the living legend.
No such luck. Tolstoy simply asked, “Is such music needed by anybody?” He went on to trash Beethoven and Pushkin, and (I can only assume) promptly left to go sit on his porch and yell insults at young people from a rocking chair.
Well, even if his music can’t cure grumpiness due to aging, Rachmaninoff’s work is certainly good enough for me. This piece in particular is guaranteed to ease the February blues.
Key moment: The final cadence takes almost half a minute. Like watching a spoonful of honey drip into your tea.
That makes me think of: The tenors and sopranos sing the same line an octave apart, starting at 1:17. Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell used to do that all the time. Have a listen at 3:44 of this song for a pretty example.
Andrew Moore is our blogger-in-residence, and author of the music blog “Beautiful Song of the Week.”
Concanenda 