He contemplated marriage and set to work on his next concerto Then Napoleon Bonaparte's forces attacked and occupied the city for the second time in four years.
Daniil Trifonov, a superb Russian pianist, decided not to perform the concerto early in his career because he didn't feel ready to convey its intensely passionate arc.
We can actually sit and listen to a piano concerto or something, and you can see the actual keys as they're being actually pressed by the actual piano player.
A pianist and conductor as well as a composer, Rachmaninoff wrote the 40-minute concerto in 1909 and gave its premiere during a successful American concert tour in the same year.
BEN LAUDE: Nothing has ever made me feel the way Chopin nocturnes and polonaises, and Beethoven sonatas made me feel, or Rachmaninoff concertos started to make me feel at high school.