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| Composers Biography - Languages - |  | |
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Sergej Rachmaninov
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Works
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![[ Sergej Rachmaninov Image]](- Classical Music Dictionary - Free MP3.files/rachmaninov.gif) |
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.
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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. MIDI
FILE - Prelude Op.3 No.2 (4'01'')
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