Sombering Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto

Because of the influence it had on popular culture, specifically in the form of sound tracks for various Hollywood films, Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto is prone to associations of superficial sentimentality and even banality; and not a few performances of the work tend to validate these associations.

In this talk, co-organised by the Cambridge Centre for Musical Performance Studies and the Institute of Musical Research, Dr Mine Do?antan-Dack (University of Cambridge) describes the process of preparing this piece for performance with the aim of lifting off this ‘popular’ veil in order to present it as a somber, serious and deeply moving work.