runner -> Rachmaninoff Weather (Dec. 9 2013 23:48:40)
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Looking out on a grey late December afternoon upon a soft, snow-covered landscape. White-accented trees looming out of a soft fog as the afternoon light slowly fades. 'Tis the season that evokes things Russian, and my ongoing re-reading of War and Peace heightened the effect. I put the hallowed old Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto on the system, and sank back as the familiar textures enveloped me. People can say what they will about old Sergei, but the first classical LP I ever bought was the Rach 2 way back when, and, unlike some other classical warhorses, I never tire of it, or any of Rachmaninoff for that matter. The British music mag The Gramophone polled classical music lovers for years, and the Rach 2 always came away as the most popular piano concerto, year after year, and maybe the most popular anything--I don't remember. This time of the year the spirit calls out for Tchaikovsky, for the Nutcracker, the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, Swan Lake, for Rach 3, the Rhapsody, the three symphonies.... Forget about Vladimir Putin and the endless bad Karma of the Russians for a while, and just enjoy music that even classical snobs really like (when no one else is around)!
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