The critical line at the time William Kapell and Fritz Reiner's recording of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was that Kapell "found the modernist in the Rhapsody without betraying Rachmaninov's Romantic heart." Well, maybe. Sure, this Rhapsody's angular and edgy, which might qualify Kapell's interpretation as modernist. And sure, this Rhapsody still got a super-soupy 18th variation, so maybe Kapell's interpretation didn't betray Rachmaninov's Romanticism. But the most interesting thing about Kapell's ...
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The critical line at the time William Kapell and Fritz Reiner's recording of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was that Kapell "found the modernist in the Rhapsody without betraying Rachmaninov's Romantic heart." Well, maybe. Sure, this Rhapsody's angular and edgy, which might qualify Kapell's interpretation as modernist. And sure, this Rhapsody still got a super-soupy 18th variation, so maybe Kapell's interpretation didn't betray Rachmaninov's Romanticism. But the most interesting thing about Kapell's interpretation was how funny it was. Right from his first entrance -- those absurd rising C sharp octaves -- Kapell seems to find the humor in the Rhapsody without giving up on either Modernism or Romanticism. And suddenly the Rhapsody seems like a new piece: not a misguided attempt on Rachmaninov's part to write a Modernist work nor a failed attempt to fuse modernism and Romanticism, but a droll, witty parody of Modernism and Romanticism. This might not be interpretively correct, but it sure...
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