Soundtracks:
Seven Year Itch
Brief Encounter
Seventh Veil
Somewhere in Time
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Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor
Like a Hollywood legend, so is told the story of Rachmaninov's piano
Concerto No. 2: after his first symphony was a total failure, the composer
turned to Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who used hypnosis in order to help him. The
doctor moved his watch from side to side in front of Rachmaninov's face,
and told the composer his next piece will be most successful. And indeed,
this concerto, dedicated to the hypnotist physician, succeeded in the impossible,
and gave the composer fame unknown in the 20th century in the field of
concerto.
The
concerto opens with eight dramatic chords, after which the first movement
continues as a serious, melancholy rhapsody. Its Romantic nature begins
here, and nostalgia to music of the previous centuries is manifested in
every single note. But the most captivating movement is the second one,
the quiet movement. This movement is filled with sadness and yearning for
something unattainable. The frustrated composer used all his talent and
all the sadness he knew at the time and channeled it into this melancholic
movement. Many years later, in the 1970's, the second movement became the
center of a very successful pop song called "All by Myself",
by American singer Eric Carmen. The music suited the lyrics he wrote so
nicely, that many pop lovers were exposed to this wondrous classical work,
and through this - to classical music as a whole.
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