The Prelude in B major, Op. 32 no. 11. Perhaps the most understated of the Preludes. It might be my favorite.
Different people have different opinions about the meaning of Allegretto here. I experimented with a few tempi and settled on a fairly slow one. The music is based on meditative chords, largely in a warm cello register, and in the middle we pause to listen to some faraway bell-like tones. When played on the slow side, it sounds prayerful and almost yearning, complete with church bells. Faster, it sounds like a droll little dance with weird interruptions in the middle. I like slow. (So did the judge when I played this for an adjudication last year.)
I'm making a separate tab for the free recordings so that I don't crowd the sidebar too much -- here's the Soundcloud player right here in the post, and later you'll be able to get to this recording by clicking on the Recordings tab.
Image: "Ninilchik Russian Orthodox Church" by muchfuninc, from Wikimedia Commons
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