Rachmaninoff: Sonata No. 2 (version Lugansky), Op. 36

Rachmaninoff's second sonata was played for the first time by the composer on 5 October 1913, in the hall of the Assembly of the Nobility in Kursk, where he started his concert tour. During his tour between 1913-1914, Rachmaninoff was already correcting his score and completely rewriting some passages, even before publication. The sonata was published in the first half of 1914 by A. Gutheil in Moscow and Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. After emigrating to the USA, Rachmaninoff became quite self-critical, which led to important revisions for some of his works (Piano Concerto No. 1 & 4, Mélodie & Sérénade from Op. 3). In 1931, Rachmaninoff thought it was time to revise his second sonata. He believed it to be too long, too dense, and containing many superfluous passages, unlike Chopin's second sonata in his opinion. It's not surprising to see Rachmaninoff comparing his sonata to Chopin's Op. 35, since he very probably took it as a model (same tonality, close opus number). While composing the Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42, Rachmaninoff began to revise his second sonata during the summer of 1931 in his villa in Clairefontaine, near Paris. A total of 120 measures were removed from the first version, as well as many small rectifications to make the score clearer for the pianist. The revised version was finally published in November 1931 by A. Gutheil, now in Paris. Whether the first or the revised version is the better one is still being debated to this day by pianists and critics. However many pianists, such as Horowitz or Van Cliburn to name the most famous, had already decided to rearrange the work and blend both versions together to their taste. This video presents Nikolaï Lugansky's version, which he usually plays at his concerts. While he had proposed a more 1913-oriented version for his CD in 2012, Lugansky has reworked his version, sometimes modifying the primary score. If you'd like to learn his version or if you're just curious about his modifications, I suggest you take a look at the pinned comment. I've listed there all the changes that I could spot. 00:00 1st Movement - Allegro agitato 09:58 2nd Movement - Non allegro, Lento 16:47 3rd Movement - Allegro molto Audio taken from :    • Lugansky - Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2