has any one heard about the story of this prelude. how it is supposed to be someone being buried alive, if you do and know about whether this is what rach intended please tell me. thanks.

Think the buried alive thing is not true, sounds too disturbing to me.

Rachmaninoff was haunted by church bells during his life, so that may explain the bell like motif at the start and again towards the end of this magnificent piece.

i dont know about it being to dark of a story for rachmaninoff he was a pretty dark and gloomy guy especially in his music.the story fits to well i think to be not true.if you can find someone can play it see if you can get them to tell you the story as they play it.thats how i heard it and is was an amazing experience for me. i was on the verge of crying.its a great piece i just played it for my recital.

I`ve heard it called the "Oh my God" prelude before. Supposedly he was asked to play this piece so often that every time he played the first three notes, he thought to himself, "Oh my God."

He didn`t actually compose this to a specific situation, contrary to popular belief. He wrote it very early and on and it became a huge hit. However the bells thing is right, in Russia he loved the bells thing is right. In the beginning it`s obvious where they are and in the faster, triplet section it`s in the left hand. Personally I love the piece, even though it`s incredibly overplayed. I haven`t found it that hard yet either, actually, even though 8notes listed it as advanced (I`m 1/2 finished after working on it a week.) and I am absolutely sure it`ll be done in a week. Did anyone actually find it difficult or have trouble with it? (This is an honest question, not an arrogant, stuck-up bragging statement)

typo, "He wrote it very early on" not "He wrote it very early and on"

It was his first big hit. It got him the name "Mr. C-Sharp Minor".

The "buried alive" thing is too freaky to believe.
The OMG Prelude...I think that`s better suited to Bach No. 1

Nah not difficult at all.
But it sounds virtuoso-isch, which makes it a good performance piece but NOT a competition piece. Waaaaay overplayed. Not as much as Fantasie-Impromptu though.

Agree it is played often, but this piece is brilliant and not too difficult. The piece is rather dramatic and gives a satisfying feeling to whoever is playing it, at least these are my feelings. If something gives me satisfaction, I don`t think it is overplayed. A nice piece to play for friends. Plus, the difficulty level keeps it a nice repetoire piece as it is not necessary to practice this piece daily to keep it nice.
~Lisa

Yap, yr right. This music is about the `dark` English Gerogian practice of burying someone alive, but unintentionally of caz... Medicine and Science were not so advanced back then...And alot of people had been mistakenly pronounced dead.
This pc is supposed to evoke an impression of a walk throught the graveyard at night, and hearing spooky knocks on the coffins by the undead, and hearing the `bells`.
The bells, too, was a practice back then, to prevent people from being wrongly buried, so what they did was to tie a string and bell to the dead`s finger. So if u`re undead, all u need to do is just to ring the bell.
This was Rach`s most popular work during his time. Audiences would always asked for encore whenever he performed on stage. The overwhelming encore for this prelude bored him so much, that he hated this work more than anything else.

continued...That was why he said `Oh My God` whenever he was asked to play this. He really hated it!

I dont know if that graveyard story is correct, yes he wrote it very early on in a book of five pieces(Op.3):
1.Elegie
2.Prelude in C# minor
3.Melodie
4.Polichinelle
5.Serenade.

That is true that many people requested for it to be played as an encore, and Sergei just started to call it the `it` prelude.

I am an odd specimen. I began playing piano a little over a year ago simply out of love for music (no lessons). I do not know how to read music. The first piece that I learned was Maple Leaf Rag (it took just as long to `decipher` the notes as it did to perfect the fingerings). I am only motivated to play more complex music. I am on my 2nd now (this Prelude). I get goose bumps everytime I hear it. I have just learned the triplet section (it sounds magnificent, doesnt it?) I have about 8 recordings of it and I find the one by Alexis Weissenberg the most intense. But I have to tell you, I feel that the section after the triplets can be very difficult. With 4 notes each hand, it can be awkward trying to play some of the notes (and I will not cheat and play 3)And I have large hands. ANY SUGGESTIONS??? The only section left to learn is this one and the second part leading into the triplets. I must say that I am quite jealous of those who say it will only take a week. My goal is to finish this piece by the end of the year But that is the price you pay when you do not read music. It is nice to see so many others out there that love Rachmaninoff.

I have solutions for your problem. U wanna visit and post yr question in our new forum? I`m sure u`ll get interesting feedback.
http://www.solomusic.net/forum
Thank you, see u there.

but perhaps u might wanna be more spefic. You are talking abt the chordal cascades after the RH triplets?