Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) was one of the last great composers to write in a full Romantic style, and he paid a price for it in a century that was moving on. The catastrophic premiere of his First Symphony in 1897 — conducted by a possibly drunk Glazunov — triggered a creative depression so severe he barely composed for three years. Hypnotherapy sessions with Dr. Nikolai Dahl restored his confidence, and the result was the Piano Concerto No. 2 (1901), which became his signature work and one of the most celebrated recoveries in classical music.

The second piano concerto and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) defined the Rachmaninoff sound: enormous piano writing, melodies that seem too large for the instruments that carry them, a sense of yearning that tips over into resignation. He was also a virtuoso pianist of the first rank — his recordings of Chopin, Schumann, and his own works remain reference points a century later. His hands reportedly spanned a 13th, which partly explains the writing but doesn't explain the musicianship.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 severed him from everything he knew — he lost his estate, his homeland, and the cultural world he belonged to. He emigrated to the US, then Switzerland, and spent his remaining decades touring and composing with increasing difficulty. His final major work, the Symphonic Dances (1940), reads as a farewell: a displaced Russian voice processing loss, faith, and the Dies Irae that haunted his music from the beginning. He died in Beverly Hills in 1943.

StyleLate Romantic Russian grandeur. Extended piano writing, modal-inflected melodies, monumental orchestration. Emotional directness that borders on confession. Somewhere between Tchaikovsky and the Russian Orthodox church.

Listen: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 — any recording with a pianist who can genuinely play it. The second movement will change your life.