Rachmaninoff: Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 1 in B flat minor - Lazar Berman, 1976 - DG 2530 678

Lazar Berman (February 26, 1930 – February 6, 2005) was a Soviet Russian classical pianist, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1988). He was hailed for a huge, thunderous technique that made him a thrilling interpreter of Liszt and Rachmaninoff and a late representative of the grand school of Russian Romantic pianism. Six moments musicaux (French for “Six Musical Moments“; Russian: Шесть музыкальных моментов), Op. 16, is a set of solo piano pieces composed by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff between October and December 1896. Each Moment musical reproduces a musical form characteristic of a previous musical era. The forms that appear in Rachmaninoff’s incarnation are the nocturne, song without words, barcarolle, virtuoso étude, and theme and variations.