Russia, 1917: The Revolution forces Rachmaninoff to leave his country. The composer then starts a full-time career as a concert pianist. Admired by his fellow musicians, offering exceptional interpretations of Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven and Schumann, as well as of his own music, his playing makes an impression on everyone that hears it.

In this essay, André Lischke looks at the life and talent of a musician who was equally renowned as a composer, a pianist who played both his own work and the classical repertory, and a charismatic conductor.

He situates Rachmaninoff’s training in the context of Russian musical and cultural life, showing the piano’s importance in the Russian musician’s work and in his life overall. Lischke also focuses on his subject’s career as a pianist, and the choices he made from the classical repertory before and after emigrating. Lastly, he explores the considerable legacy of Rachmaninoff recordings as a pianist.

All together, the book constitutes a fascinating biographical essay about a man who represents a unique phenomenon in the history of the piano, whose composing and playing are like the call and response of Russian church bells in an émigré’s aural memory.

In this biographical essay about Rachmaninoff, André Lischke, a Russian music specialist, focuses on the composer’s talent as an interpreter and a pianist.