Rachmaninoff - The Isle of the Death (recordings of the Century: Fritz Reiner & Serge Koussevitzky)

Album available // Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 by Fritz Reiner and Serge Koussevitsky 🎧 Qobuz https://cutt.ly/zev8moJG Tidal https://cutt.ly/0ev8mE74 🎧 Deezer https://cutt.ly/Hev8mJ6e Amazon Music https://cutt.ly/3ev8mBL4 🎧 Spotify https://cutt.ly/Pev8m5tP Youtube Music https://cutt.ly/hev8Qdup 🎧 Apple Music (off) Idagio (Hi-Fi) (off) 🎧 Naspter, Pandora, Anghami, Soundcloud, QQ音乐, LineMusic, AWA日本… Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) The Isle of the Death / Remastered 00:00The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 - Symphonic Poem / Fritz Reiner (Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra) (Remastered 2022, Version 1957) 19:59 The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 - Symphonic Poem / Serge Koussevitsky (Serge Koussevitsky, Boston Symphony Orchestra) (Remastered 2022, Version 1945) Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14    • Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 (Serge Koussevits...   (Serge Koussevitsky, Boston Symphony Orchestra) (Remastered 2022, Version 1945) Painting: Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901) The Island of the Dead (Die Toteninsel) 🔊 FOLLOW US on SPOTIFY (Profil: CMRR) : https://spoti.fi/3016eVr 🔊 Download CMRR's recordings in High fidelity audio (QOBUZ) : https://bit.ly/370zcMg ❤️ If you like CM//RR content, please consider membership at our Patreon page. Thank you :)   / cmrr   The Isle of the Dead, a symphonic poem contemporary with Stravinsky's Chant funèbre, was born of the discovery, during a visit to Paris by Rachmaninov, of a black and white reproduction of The Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901). More precisely, one of the Isle of the Dead by the Swiss painter because, like Monet with his Haystacks or his Cathedrals of Rouen, Böcklin painted the same subject under different lighting conditions. Between 1880 and 1886, he painted five versions of The Isle of the Dead in various shades and lights. The scene is always the same: a boat driven by an oarsman, painted from behind, moves forward on the calm water of the river Styx, while standing in the middle of the boat and in front of his coffin, a dead man, also seen from behind, in his shroud, looks out over his final resting place: a rocky island, planted with tall cypress trees. The dark tones of the cypresses and the water, the shadow that surrounds the oarsman, are contrasted with the whiteness of the shroud. Struck by the scene, Rachmaninov found inspiration for a symphonic poem that he began in early 1909 and which is among the peaks of his symphonic output. Without being accompanied by a specific program, the symphonic poem The Island of the Dead recreates the funereal atmosphere of the painting by adding a passionate dramatism. The music describes the silent and furtive approach of the boat, the journey through the night, the dense fog, the passionate farewell to earthly happiness, the sweet liberation from death; then, after he has laid down his burden, the ferryman disappears across the water. The piece opens, sombrely, with the slow gliding of the boat suggested by a five-beat rhythm, with oscillations between major and minor, in the low register of the strings (cellos and double basses), with timpani and harp. A motif from the Dies irae, repeated several times, adds a tragic solemnity to this beginning. A Gregorian sequence from the Office of the Dead, the Dies irae haunted Rachmaninov, who used it in numerous scores: before The Isle of the Dead, he had made it the cyclical motif of his Symphony No. 1 (1895). He used it in the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) and in the Symphonic Dances (1940), his last work. After this sparse beginning, the score moves forward with increasing dramatic intensity. A brass chorale transitions into a middle section that evokes, in a suddenly brighter mood, the "memory of earthly joys and life. In the Largo that follows, the Dies irae returns, muffled, while the last measures repeat the first ones, on the same tireless rhythm, letting everyone hear, which the oars of the boatman, which the immobile eternity or the ineluctable death. Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2 in E minor Op. 27 / Remastered (Ct.rc.: Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia):    • Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 - I. Lar...   Sergey Vasil’yevich Rachmaninov PLAYLIST (reference recordings):    • Sergey Vasil’yevich Rachmaninov (1873-1943)