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		everything you need to know about
		Sergey Rachmaninov The late Russian Romantic composer and piano virtuoso who spent many years in the USA. Rachmaninov developed a musical style all of his own, composing symphonies, works for piano and orchestra, sonatas, choral works and solo keyboard music which includes some of music’s most memorable and best-loved themes.
		Listen [in RealAudio] need audio help?
		Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Shelley, Scottish National Orch/Thomson CHANDOS CHAN 8882 Prelude Op.23 no.5 in G minor Dmitri Alexeev - Virgin Classics VBD 561624		Born: 1873 Died: 1943

I look at my early works and see how much there is that is superfluous. Even in this sonata so many voices are moving simultaneously, and it is too long. Chopin’s Sonata lasts 19 minutes, and all has been said.

Rachmaninov on his 2nd Piano Sonata, to musicologist Alfred Swan.

within bbc.co.uk music:

Rachmaninov biography

Classical news, reviews and listings

Profiles A-Z listing

elsewhere on bbc.co.uk:

Discovering Music: Symphony no.2, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

BBC Proms: What’s On

elsewhere on the web:

The Rachmaninov webring

Rachmaninov site with useful CD reviews and biography

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

RACHMANINOV IN ONE MINUTE

Achieved fame not only as a composer, but also as a conductor and virtuoso pianist who performed his own works
After emigrating to the USA from Russia, he felt almost unable to compose
For years there was a Soviet ban on his music
In America his music was championed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy
Rachmaninov felt that The Bells and the Vespers were his best works
He had very large hands which enabled him to play unusually wide chords
His fondness for fast cars led him to occasionally fall foul of the law over speeding offences

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Classical news, reviews, listings and features

Classical Music Homepage

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Rachmaninov

GOOD RECORDINGS

A GOOD READ

Symphonies 1, 2 & 3
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Ashkenazy
Decca 448 116-2
Respected interpreter.

Piano Concertos 2 & 3
Rachmaninov (piano), Philadelphia Orchestra
Naxos 8.110601
Brilliant re-masterings.

Symphonic Dances
St Petersburg PO/Temirkanov
RCA 62710
His "last spark".

Vespers

Vespers
USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir/Polyansky
Melodiya 74321 25188 2
Stunning Russian singing.

Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music
by Bertenson and Leyda
(Indiana UP, 2002)
Well researched and updated.

Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor
by Barrie Martyn
(Scolar Press, 1990)
Exploration of the three elements of his career.

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