The piece
Rachmaninoff wrote his Second Piano Concerto in 1900 and 1901, after years of doubt that had followed the failure of his First Symphony; he dedicated it to Dr Nikolai Dahl, who had helped him regain his confidence. He played the piano part himself in Moscow in the autumn of 1901, and the concerto became one of the best loved in the repertoire. The version played here is the opening of the first movement, after Vincent G. Stoks's arrangement for piano solo, entered note by note for Noctave, with a final chord added.
It all begins with eight slow chords that ring like bells, from very soft to very loud, each answered by a low note in the left hand. Then the theme arrives, broad and dark, in the right hand, while the left hand keeps rising and falling from the bass to the treble. Keep that hand supple and light, and let the melody sing above it.
