Sergey V. Rachmaninov: Suite in D minor, I. Allegro moderato - Julia Severus, piano

Sergey V. Rachmaninov: Suite in D minor, I. Allegro moderato Julia Severus, piano On January 6, 1891, 17-year old Rachmaninov wrote to his friend Natalia Skalon: „These two and a half days I have been composing all the time; I have just finished the instrumentation of my suite.“ And on January 10: „As to the orchestral suite, my affair did not get off, they won´t play it as it is written for large symphonic orchestra… So […] next year […] I will organize a concert myself and play it… Now I gave it to Tchaikovsky to look at, I trust him blindly.“ Rachmaninov’s piano transcription of the Orchestral Suite was found in pianist Alexander Siloti’s archive in Moscow only in 2002 (Siloti was Rachmaninov’s cousin and a pupil of Liszt). The first movement in D minor, composed in classical sonata form and by its introduction anticipating the Prelude in C sharp minor, displays already the characteristic Rachmaninovian melodic-harmonic idiom. The dark flow of the main theme contrasts the fragile beauty of