Irina Lankova plays Rachmaninov's Vocalise

Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14 ebbs with beauty and haunts your ears. Written in 1912 as the final entry in his Fourteen Songs, it was originally written for soprano or tenor voice with a piano accompaniment, but Rachmaninov later created a new orchestrated version. What makes the piece unique is the singer’s reliance on just one vowel throughout the piece: its beauty therefore lies in the performer’s ability to convey tone color and emotion through the melody. Its wordlessness is also what allows it to be adapted for countless instruments and ensembles. Pianist Irina Lankova studied at both the Gnessin College of Music in Moscow and the Brussels Royal Conservatory under the Russian School greats: Evgeny Moguilevsky, Irina Temtchenko, Vladimir Ashkenazy, among others. Known for her colorful tonal palette and delicate lyricism, Lankova’s playing brings Hungarian conductor and pianist Zoltán Kocsis’s arrangement to life. A dedicated pedagogue committed to increasing the accessibility of music for all, she created Piano Unveiled, a video series about the art of piano playing with millions of views.

© Nathalie Gabay