Most achingly-beautiful music

Hcfolm: Unfortunately in Carmen's case, it's just the opposite of what it seems. Carmen was a child prodigy, Julliard trained as a concert pianist before he hit the pop stage w/ the Rasberries and demonstrated his affinity for the Beatles. So he had been inundated w/ old Sergei way before that first solo release. He lifted the melody from the Rach 2 (Piano Concerto, not symph) verbatim, and while he may have cited the source in an interview here and there, did NOT in the published sheet music at the time (early 70's, right?). Caused quite a stir in the keyboard community...as many saw it as blatant musical plagarism, much as 2nd movement of Beethoven's "Pathetique" sonata has been lifted, and other throughout pop history.

Thanks Hcfolm & Timwat I was always curious about those details since it was so obvious the melody was the same almost verbatim . Now Timwat you have me confused somewhat. You have stated he lifted the music from the 2nd Concerto not the Symphony. The piece I am talking about is definitely from the 3rd movement of 2nd sym not any of Rach Concerto pieces which I am intimately familiar with. Are you speaking of other pieces as well that he plagerized?

This was definitely from his 1st solo album. As a matter of fact I saw Carmen in Concert in I believe 1972 (Spectrum Philly) after he left the Rasberries in what was his 1st solo tour. That is when I first heard him perform the piece and noticed the similarities with Rach but didn't note any other pieces he performed that were similar to any of Rach or other's work.

I was referring to Carmen's "All By Myself" (on the first side of that release), which lifts from what pianists commonly refer to as Rach 2 (the Piano concerto). You're referring, I think, to "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again", the other hit (on the second side of that release...at least on vinyl...ha ha ha). As Spinal Tap said so eloquently, "there's a fine line between clever and stupid"...citing the master from which you lift a wonderful melody is called "homage"...lifting the melody without citation is called "plagarism". I say him on the old TV show "Midnight Special" with a band that (if memory serves) had two drummers (both around 300 lbs), two guitarists and two bass players! The two drummers played everything in complete unison...completely redundant unless he was going for "separation and soundstage imaging".

Don't forget to include Dvorak's Cello Concerto. I particularly like Yo Yo Ma's interpretation on CBS Masterworks.