Latest Release
- 16 SEPT 2024
- 1 Song
- Flight of the Bumblebee - Single · 2024
- Prelude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2 - Single · 2024
- Rachmaninoff: Study Pictures, Op. 39: No. 6, Allegro in A Minor (2024 Remaster) - Single · 2024
- Etude Tableau Op 39 No. 6 Little Red Riding Hood - Single · 2024
- Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22: Variation No. 16 Lento - Single · 2024
- Rachmaninoff: Study Pictures, Op. 39: No. 4 in B Minor. Allegro assai (2024 Remaster) - Single · 2024
- 10 Preludes, Op. 23: No. 5 in G Minor. Alla marcia (2024 Remaster) - Single · 2024
- Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini, Op. 43: Varation 18 - Single · 2024
- Cavendish Classical presents Cavendish Players: Essential Rachmaninoff 2 · 2024
- Cavendish Classical presents Cavendish Players: Essential Rachmaninoff 1 · 2024
Essential Albums
- Recorded in November 1971 and still sounding amazingly fresh in superb Decca sound, here are two piano-and-orchestra favourites that find pianist, orchestra and conductor making magic happen. Ashkenazy’s wonderful way with this composer—he’s one of the great Rachmaninoff interpreters—makes this a very special recording: the Concerto broad, romantic and powerfully done, the Rhapsody witty, fleet of foot and full of sparkle. Previn is a perfect partner and had already made the LSO into a world-class Rachmaninoff ensemble.
- 2024
- 2024
Artist Playlists
- The piano virtuoso whose compositions still keep concert artists on their toes.
- Not only one of the major Russian composers, but also one of the greatest pianists of all time.
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About Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff excelled as a conductor, virtuoso pianist and composer famous for his ripely melodious, wistful strain of late Romanticism. Born in 1873, his earliest formative experience was hearing the bells of St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. Their sound informs several of his works, not least the tolling opening of his Piano Concerto No. 2. After a shaky start, his musical studies improved once his talent was recognised at the Moscow Conservatory by Tchaikovsky protégé Arensky. Rachmaninoff took his exams a year early and graduated aged 19 with the highest possible marks. Shortly afterwards, he wrote the Prelude in C-Sharp Minor (1892), which became his regular encore as a touring pianist. As a composer, Rachmaninoff suffered blows that reduced his creativity: the poorly performed 1897 premiere of his First Symphony, which resulted in a three-year creative block; the October Revolution of 1917, which forced him to leave his homeland and lead a more-or-less itinerant existence between the U.S. and Western Europe. His pre-Revolutionary masterpieces include his Second and Third Piano Concertos (1901, 1909) and the soulful and consoling Second Symphony (1907). The relative failure of his Fourth Concerto (1926) led to another creative hiatus, eventually broken with the Variations on a Theme of Corelli for solo piano (1931), followed by 1934’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra with its seductive Andante cantabile variation. His final work, Symphonic Dances (1940), looks back at Russia with both nostalgia and bitterness, including a vengeful quotation from his choral All-Night Vigil (1915). He died of cancer in Beverly Hills in 1943.
- HOMETOWN
- Semyonovo, Russia
- BORN
- 1 April 1873
- GENRE
- Classical