This culmination may be at the end or in the middle, it may be loud or soft; but the performer must know how to approach it with absolute calculation, absolute precision, because, if it slips by, then the whole construction crumbles, and the piece becomes disjointed and scrappy and does not convey to the listener what must be conveyed.
Sergei Rachmaninoff to Marietta Shaginian, cited in G. Norris, “Sergey Rakhmaninov,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, London, Macmillan, 1995, vol. 15, p.555.
Rachmaninoff on the culminating point in performance
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Intermezzo, op. 118 no. 2 (Brahms)
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A carriage of flowers for TchaikovskyTchaikovsky’s favourite flower was lilies of the valley. The local musical society at Tiflis was extremely enthusiastic to have the presence of Tchaikovsky at a gala concert of his works at the Opera House: Ippolitov-Ivanov had thought of everything, even finding out by devious means what his favourite flower was. This flower did not grow […]
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