Six Moments musicaux op. 16

This cycle of six piano pieces was composed in 1896, just four years after Rachmaninov had completed his studies at the Moscow Conservatory, and it already shows signs of the mature master he would become. Deeply expressive and complex in texture, the six pieces clearly point towards Rachmaninov’s later large cycles such as the Préludes and the Études-Tableaux.

For this edition Henle has been able to consult the autographs held by the Glinka Museum in Moscow, which have enabled them to correct numerous mistakes and inaccuracies that had found their way into the first edition. As a bonus, it offers an appendix with the late version of the second “Moment musical” in e-flat minor that Rachmaninov published in the USA in 1940. Henle has been able to recruit no less a figure than Marc-André Hamelin to undertake the fingerings here.