Sonata No. 2

Sonata No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, catalogued as Op. 36, is a work for solo piano in B-flat minor. Composed during the Late Romantic era, it forms part of the composer's enduring contribution to the keyboard repertoire and is freely available in the public domain through archives such as IMSLP.

Sergei Rachmaninoff carried the Romantic piano tradition into the twentieth century. His Préludes, Études-Tableaux, Moments musicaux, and two sonatas are huge, dense, lyrical works built for a hand the size of his own.

The work is suited to virtuoso-level pianists. As with all repertoire from this period, study editions vary; the public-domain engravings linked here are based on the most widely-circulated nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century editions and are sufficient for serious study, recital preparation, and recording.

About Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff carried the Romantic piano tradition into the twentieth century. His Préludes, Études-Tableaux, Moments musicaux, and two sonatas are huge, dense, lyrical works built for a hand the size of his own.

Key character — B-flat minor

Funereal and grand. Chopin's Marche Funèbre and Rachmaninoff's Second Sonata draw on its dark gravity.

The Late Romantic Era

The late Romantic era extended Romantic intensity into chromatic, large-scale works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Fauré, and the late Brahms. Harmonic ambiguity and dense layered textures begin to point toward the modern.

About the Sonata form

The sonata is the central architectural form of Classical and Romantic keyboard music: typically three or four contrasting movements built around the dramatic dialogue of sonata-allegro form. From C. P. E. Bach's first essays through Beethoven's 32, Schubert's last great cycle, and the Romantic single-movement experiments of Liszt and Scriabin, the sonata absorbs every major shift in keyboard thinking.