Rachmaninov: Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor III. Andante

Rachmaninov: Sonata for Cello & Piano in G Minor III. Andante

It is a very tranquil piece which is made up of a lot of sustained chords. The cello part mimics the piano part a lot throughout and seems to be mainly focused on the i and V chord in the A sections with occasional and increasingly wanderings away from it in the B section. Very simple, yet complex how purely beautiful it is. Extremely flowing from one part to the next even through key changes there is no jolting feeling of the change…just very calming. It’s about half way through the piece where the piece develops from the very calm and tranquil feeling to one that could be envisioned as the sun trying to shine through the clouds. As the end of this B section you have a very satisfying feeling as if all though you just got worked up everything is going to be okay. Then the A section returns to really give you the sense of home with the focusing chords being i and V. Towards the end there are some accidentals thrown in to give a sense of tension before the final chords, which really makes those final chords even more sweet to the ear now that it is all simple chord tones.