Rachmaninoff Etudes-tableaux

Rachmaninoff's Études-tableaux (study pictures) consist of two sets of piano études. The first set, Opus 33, was composed in 1911 and has eight pieces; the second, Opus 39, was composed in 1916/1917 and has nine pieces. The Études-tableaux may have been inspired by Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etudes. Five of these pieces were orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi in 1930.

Opus 39 is more demanding of the performer than Opus 33. According to the music-critic/writer Robert Matthew-Walker, the Opus 39 pieces are “virtuosic in the extreme". As well as technical difficulties, the individual mood and passionate character of each piece present musical problems that, according to Matthew-Walker, “prohibit performance of them by anyone except those who possess a tremendous virtuoso technique.” (Among Matthew-Walker's books is Rachmaninoff: His Life and Times, Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-0253-4, 1984.)

A Russian piano virtuoso, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943) was one of the last great composers of the Romantic era of music. His compositions are renowned for their lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich distinctive colors.

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