Rakhmania

Programme notes

In Rakhmania  Casteels orchestrated so to speak for two pianos Sergei Rachmaninov's prelude opus 23 no 2 for solo piano. What is the point of expanding this well-known prelude? Low strings sound glorious on concert grand pianos. Casteels says he was struck by the incessant  28 poundings of the low b flat that creates an aural orgy counterbalanced by the longing nostalgy of a melody that desperately tries to escape from the gravity of the low b flat. The only poetic licence taken by Casteels in relation to Rachmaninov's original composition are the extension of the opening canon that Rachmaninov sketches in his opening bars, the inflation of the maelstrom colossal chords in bars 53 and 54 into an epilpetic seizure and the reintroduction of the nostalgic middle theme in the coda. 

The subtitle says it all: "majestueux prelude opus 23 no. 2, exalté pour deux magnifiques et superbissimes piano à queue de concert en si bémol par Robert Casteels, en toute admiration du petit robert pour le Grand Serge, ie, majestuous prelude opus 23 nr 2, elated for two magnificent and very proud concert grand pianos in b flat by Robert Casteels, in admiration from the small robert to the grand Serge. Robert and Serge are the first names of Casteels and Rachmaninov. The play with words consists in superimposing on a relation of admiration the fact that le petit robert is a popular single volume French dictionary first published in 1967, that grand in French relates in English to grand as well as tall (Rachmaninov was 6 feet tall with large hands that could span an interval of a 12th).

Completion of the transcreation 

10-IX-2009

Recording

link #2 (video of the premiere)

Score follower

link #1

Review 

"Rakhmania for two pianos is a tribute to Rachmaninov. It was an expansion and elaboration of Rachmaninov's Prelude in B flat major (Opus 23 No. 2), playing on the canon-like quality of its main theme. This thundering number was both a deconstruction and a conflation. Bells sounds filled the air, bringing a most unsual piano recital to a satifying close"

Chang Tou Liang, Singapore