Rachmaninov’s Suite no.1 Op 5 is a wonderful work for two pianos, written as a musical depiction of four poems including Lord Byron’s La nuit… L’amour…(The night…the love…)

Marianna Shirinyan and Dominik Wizjan’s new recording of the work illustrates the words beautifully, so we thought we’d bring them all together here for you to enjoy side by side.
(The poems are abridged as on the original published score, seen below)

You can find the full album here.

1. Barcarolle.
Allegretto, in G minor.

At dusk the chill wave laps gently
Beneath the gondola’s slow oar
That song again and again, the twang of the guitar,
In the distance the old barcarolle was heard,
now melancholy, now happy…
The gondola glides through the water, and time glides over the surge of love;
The water will grow smooth again and passion will rise no more.

(Mikhail Lermontov)

2. La nuit… L’amour… (The night…the love…)
Adagio sostenuto, in D major.

It is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale’s high note is heard,
It is the hour when lovers’ vows
Seem sweet in every whisper’d word,
And gentle winds and waters near,
Make music to the lonely ear…..

(Lord Byron)

3. Les Larmes (The Tears)
Largo di molto, in G minor.

Tears, human tears
You flow both early and late —
You flow unknown, you flow unseen
Inexhaustible, innumerable —
You flow like torrents of rain
In the depths of an autumn night.

(Fyodor Tyutchev)

4. Pâques (Easter)
Allegro maestoso, in G minor. 

Across the earth a mighty bell is ringing
Until all the booming air rocks like the sea
As silver thunderings sing forth the tidings
Exulting in that holy victory…

(Aleksey Khomyakov)