Gerardo Constantini wrote:

>Anyway,concerning Rachmaninoff,despite his music cronologically belongs
>mostly to the 20 century, his style (late romanticism,or whatever it
>can be named)is completely out of it.

I wouldn't necessarily say that about some of his later works (of the ones
I know, for example the 3rd symphony or the 4th piano concerto, and some
of the Etudes-tableaux).  There is a new acerbic and fragmented character
to be found in them which, to me, places them squarely in this century.
In these works, the 'romantic' parts have become a nostalgic foil to the
ugly and dislocated present, so to speak.  Rachmaninoff's musical tools
may have always been those of Tschaikowsky etc., but I, for one, can hear
the strident sounds of war and revolution in his 3rd symphony (in his own
performance of it, at least - part of the problem with R.  is that many
newer interpretations of his works are far to slow and gooey).

Felix Delbruck
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