Reflections on Hearing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata
in B Flat Minor (Opus 36) Performed by My Younger Son
On a Sunday Morning in West Hollywood
I
Romantic sonatas by Russians
Flaunt violent piano percussions—
Wreak digital mayhem
On fingers that play ‘em,
More fiercely than music by Prussians.
(7/14/09)
II
Rachmaninoff’s musical junctions
Form various magical unctions—
Faint pianissimo
To forté or brio
They soothe one’s auricular functions.
(7/16/09)