V. Gryaznov arrangements of 4 compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Vyacheslav Gryaznov’s arrangements of Sergei Rachmaninov’s “The Night is Sad“ op. 26/12; “How Peaceful“ op. 21/7; “Vocalise“ op. 34/14; and Italian Polka. His program notes: One of my favorite of Rachmaninoff’s vocal pieces is the romance “How Peaceful.” The desire to arrange it for piano had been growing in me since my school years, I just lacked that final impetus. Then one day it happened. I did it on the airplane flying from Khabarovsk to Sakhalin, the place where I was born and had enjoyed a happy childhood and which I had not visited for eighteen long years, having left for Moscow many years before. I have always thought about this romance as if melting in a dream with a quiet culmination and did not plan to change anything. However, to my surprise, I wrote it in a different way. Later on, while playing the transcription on the piano I tried to understand why it turned out to be so openly passionate, and it occurred to me that this transcription was not about