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 neo-Romantic 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