Something a little calmer today, the first of Rachmaninov’s Morceaux de fantaisie (the second one of the set is the very famous C# minor Prelude). I was in two minds about whether this counts as a happy piece, but I love it very much. It’s Rachmaninov’s birthday today and I’ve spent my afternoon trying to resurrect my Russian by reading a bit of Pushkin, so this piece seems fitting. It’s a wistful sort of happiness, the dream of an elegant world that has been long destroyed, if it ever even existed.
Introducing Ailsa Dixon’s Music
Composer Ailsa Dixon studied at Durham in the 1950s. Ahead of a concert celebrating her music, her daughter Josie Dixon tells Ailsa’s story and introduces the music on the programme.