19 JEAN-BAPTISTE FONLUPT Seven years separate the composition of Opus 23 and Opus 32. How did his composition evolve during that time? Several of the pieces in Op. 23 still retain a Romantic spirit. There is a Chopinesque gesture in the eighth, with its soaring phrase reminiscent of Frédéric Chopin’s Impromptu in A-flat major, Op. 29). The ninth, composed entirely in doubled notes, is reminiscent of his Étude in G-sharp minor, Op. 25 no.6) — the so-called Étude des tierces (Étude in Thirds). The elegiac sweetness of the fourth, its long melody unfolding over broad arpeggios, and the sensitive, almost Schumannesque lyricism of the sixth—composed on the day of his daughter Irina’s birth—are drawn from romanticism. The tenth is entirely in suspension, contemplative. It radiates a deep serenity, a gentleness, something remarkably pure. It is not tethered to the bass. With its quaver rest on the first beat, it gives the impression of floating in weightlessness. The writing is more sharply characterised in Opus 32. There, we find the two facets of Rachmaninoff’s contrasting personality: flashes of brilliance and inwardness, expansiveness and introspection. While Opus 23—composed shortly after his marriage—conveys a sense of music filled with life, happiness, love, exultant joy, but also contemplative depth in its first and last preludes, Opus 32 is overall darker and also more orchestral. Its harmonic texture has evolved—becoming denser and more complex. The thirteenth Prelude sums up this evolution in its own right. Covering the entire width of the keyboard, it even descends into the D flat of the lowest register. The fourth is particularly dark. Its passage in triplets has something frenzied and frightening about it. With its ringing bells, the third Prelude appears more radiant, but at the end they fade away, as if they were the recollection of a dream.
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