Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos 1-4, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Featuring

Fabio Luisi
Lise de la Salle
Orchester der Oper Zürich
Sergei Rachmaninoff

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Composer Biography

Sergei Rachmaninov's father squandered his mother's inheritance of five estates by the time Sergei was ten years old.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded live at the Opernhaus Zürich and the Tonhalle Zürich in 2013, 2014, and 2015, and was produced by Andreas Werner and engineered by Jakob Händel and Stefan Hächler.

Notable Performances

Gustav Mahler and Rachmaninov performed the Third Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in 1910, with Mahler rehearsing so meticulously that the orchestra had to work overtime.

Composition History

Rachmaninov stopped composing after the failed 1897 premiere of his First Symphony, which was conducted by an intoxicated Alexander Glazunov, and only resumed after receiving psychiatric treatment.

Cultural Impact

Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto is inseparable from its cinema career, having provided the soundtrack for films like "Grand Hotel" and "Hereafter," and becoming a byword for ecstasy.

Composer Biography

After leaving Russia in 1917, Rachmaninov cultivated an image as a 'Russian in America,' living in New York with Russian servants, guests, and customs, and performing over a thousand times in the USA alone by his death in 1943.