Rachmaninoff Symphony 2 Excerpt

August 11, 2005 at 11:04 AM · I played it YEARS ago but I think that movement has like 5 sharps or 5 flats or something. It is slow and has a pretty melody, and I think it has a lot of eighth note slurred lines. You might want to be safe and order it early if you have that option.

Edit....Oh, I am thinking of the piano concerto NO.2 so maybe we are talking of different pieces of music. Sorry.

August 11, 2005 at 02:30 PM · It's a standard excerpt for many orchestras. But if you've never played the symphony, it's hard to get it down in your head, so I'd get the music and pick up a recording right away. After all, why wait?

August 11, 2005 at 08:36 PM · I played the symphony about two years ago, and here are some of my foggy recollections:

One section within the 2nd movement to concentrate would be the 'Meno Mosso.'

Intonation is tricky (many accidentals) and the passage is very exposed for violins. Play with an aggressive but controlled articulation.

August 11, 2005 at 09:25 PM · I have played it with an amateurorchestra 2 years ago. I have the music here in front of me. Special the meno mosso is tricky. A big open solo for the second violinists and it is fast. But as amateurs we had nothing to loose so it went well at the concerts. The piece is quite fast and in C majeur.

The 1th and the 3th symfony of Rachmaninov is also very beautiful, but it is seldom played for strange reasons, because it is not a repertoriepiece like violinconcert 2 till 6 of Paganini. If they play a Paganiniviolinconcerto it is nearly always for the same strange reasons the first. Strange world those amateur- and professional orchestra world, so you have to buy a cd to hear the other beatiful music.

But first a cd of Rach2 and the sheetmusic so than you can prepare yourself now. The sooner you begin the better the audition.

August 12, 2005 at 04:37 AM · You can listen to it here-

http://classic.manual.ru/mp3/Rachmaninov/Rach_Symp-2_Ashk_2p.mp3

It's in A minor, but the middle section sounds pretty tough... I think it's mostly just half-step intervals, and there's a pattern there.

I love the entire piece... the 3rd movement is probably the most famous.

August 12, 2005 at 09:12 AM · I played this with my youth orchestra 2 years ago, on 2nd violin, and just recently we played the 3rd symphony...luckily this time I had a much better idea of what was going on!! I remember we had quite a bit of trouble with the meno mosso solo, especially with people rushing. I did however keep my practise part (always useful), so send me a message if you want me to scan it for you.

--Fiona