(1873-1943)
Rachmaninov began to study piano with his mother at the age of four. He continued his studies at the St. Petersburg and Moscow conservatories under Zvereff and Arenski. He is considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all times, but is also remembered for his compositions and as a conductor. He fled from Russia, after the Communist Revolution in 1917, and he eventually based himself in the United States where he later became a citizen. His highly successful, but exhausting career as a concert pianist enabled him to support his family but left little time for composition. His music remains an indispensable part of Romantic repertory. The second of Rachmaninov's four piano concertos holds an unchallenged position among Romantic works in this form. Its popularity is closely rivalled by the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”, for piano and orchestra. While the Symphonic Dances of 1940 enjoy some popularity, as well as the symphonic poem “The Rock” and the dark-hued “Isle of the Dead”, with its recurrent motif from the Latin Requiem Mass, the second of his three numbered symphonies is still more familiar. Rachmaninov's first real success came in 1892 with the Prelude in C sharp minor. Other piano works include the Etudes-tableaux of 1911 and 1916-17, two sonatas, sets of Preludes and Moments musicaux, transcriptions, including the two Kreisler pieces Liebesleid and Liebesfreud, and the impressive Variations on a Theme of Corelli, his last original composition for solo piano, composed in 1931 and based on the popular Baroque dance theme of La Follia, also used by Corelli in a violin sonata. [Adapted from Karadar]
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