Rachmaninov: the Piano Sonatas

Rachmaninov:
 Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 28
 Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 36
 
Tchaikovsky:
 Lullaby, Op. 16 No. 1 (arr. Rachmaninov)

Rachmaninov started composing Sonata No. 1 Op. 28 in the spring of 1907, in Dresden, whilst also working on his Symphony No. 2 and the opera 'Monna Vanna'. He wrote to a friend on 8th May 1907: “The Sonata is without any doubt wild and endlessly long... No one will ever play this composition because of its difficulty and length”. The composer revealed later that the 1st movement related to [Goethe's] Faust, the 2nd one to Gretchen and the 3rd was the flight to the Brocken and Mephistopheles.

The 2nd Sonata op. 36 is an astounding feat of compositional ingenuity, created out of a single thematic seed. As with several of his works, Rachmaninov felt dissatisfied with the first version of 1913 and eventually revised it in 1931, significantly shortening it and thinning out the texture. The transcription of Tchaikovsky's 'Lullaby' for piano, Op. 16 No. 1, which Rachmaninov made in August 1941, is his last work. It is a remarkable coincidence that one of the very first pieces that he wrote as a 13-year-old in 1886 was the arrangement of another composition by Tchaikovsky.

Described by London’s Classic FM Magazine as a “sensationally gifted” musician of “stunning artistry”, Rustem Hayroudinoff graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Lev Naumov. He was one of the first students (if not the first) from the Soviet Union to study at the Royal Academy, where he is now a professor of piano. He has recorded for various labels including Chandos and Decca. This is his debut for Onyx.