September 10, 2008

"Vocalise" (Rachmaninoff: Op. 34, #14)

Last December I decided that 2008 would be my personal "year of the music". After some months of going every week to the Philharmonic or the Opéra or some concerts, I had to quit due to Aristotle. Frau Dissertation is such a jealous girl!

Anyways... The most listened composition of the year is Vocalise, by Rachmaninoff. (It is a composition to be sung with just one vowel.) Here is a great arrangement for violin recorded in 1929, and directed by himself. "Rachmaninoff conducts his own arrangement of Vocalise for orchestra, in a recording from 1929. Rachmaninoff demonstrates the lyricism he expected from a performance of this piece, with the violins of the Philadelphia Orchestra using portamento to add expressiveness to the main line", quotes Wikipedia.



My favorite version is the one by Carlos Prieto on the cello, and a piano, allegedly arranged by Rostropovich and Heifetz. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find it on the web, and my internet skills are really limited, so I don't know either how to upload it. But here you will find it.

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