Editor’s Note: Rachmaninoff’s Sonata, Op. 19 is an heroic work, Rachmaninoff’s only solo sonata for an instrument other than piano. It is remarkable how many fine pianists don’t play this 30 minute work, as they choose to play the other difficult works of Rachmaninoff, perhaps as soloists rather than as collaborative pianists. One might also note that in performances with some cellists, the piano part is occasionally forced to play a pragmatic softer dynamic in live performance than the music demands, as the the cello is simply not able to compete with the dynamic of a pianist playing forte and using all 10 fingers! The saxophone does not suffer from an inability to compete with the the piano dynamic, and the resultant collaboration with saxophone and piano is glorious and revelatory to Rachmaninoff’s lines, sensitively transcribed and treated by saxophonist (and superb violinist) Chien-Kwan Lin. As we know, in addition to virtuosic piano writing, Rachmaninoff was the great writer of melodies, whether tragically sad, melancholy or passionately beautiful The third movement of the Sonata is no different, ingeniously built on just two notes. How does he do it? That is why we must play this work, as we search for those answers as performers. - Kenneth Radnofsky Copyright © 2012 by Kenneth Radnofsky. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.