Composer
Sergei Rachmaninoff
A late-blooming Romantic, writing lush, virtuosic piano music well into the 20th century.
Sergei Rachmaninoff was a phenomenal concert pianist as well as a composer, and his own instrument dominates his output: some of the most demanding, lushly Romantic piano concertos ever written, composed and performed well after Debussy, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg had already begun pulling classical music toward modernism. Rachmaninoff, largely uninterested in those developments, kept writing in a late-Romantic idiom of sweeping melody and rich harmony almost until his death in 1943.
His Piano Concerto No. 2 is one of the most popular concertos in the entire repertoire, prized for its combination of technical demand and overwhelming melodic and emotional weight. His Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, a set of variations on a famous violin melody by Paganini, is best known for its 18th variation — a melody so different from the theme it's built on that many listeners don't realize it's a variation at all.
Where to start listening: the 18th variation of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is instantly recognizable and a good hook into his style; the Piano Concerto No. 2's opening movement rewards a full, patient listen.