Keys to the Drama in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 2
The Backstory
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
I'm Sergei Rachmaninoff, and this is the backstory of my Piano Concerto No 2. You'll find out how the last two movements were played for a Moscow audience in December 1900, while the first was still unfinished, and why that odd order makes the story worth knowing. On this site my fellow composers and I also teach you to recognize our pieces when they play, so test yourself in the Trainer and see how quickly the music becomes familiar.
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A Visit That Did Not Help
In 1899 I went to see Leo Tolstoy, hoping, I think, for some kind of lift. I came away even more despondent than before. By then I had written very little for about three years, and I couldn't see how I would ever write again. My relatives watched all this with growing worry, and they decided something had to be done.The Doctor Who Talked Me Back
My relatives sent me to a neurologist named Nikolai Dahl, and I saw him every day from January to April 1900. He used hypnotherapy and plain, supportive conversation, which sounds almost too simple to work. It did work, though, and my health and my confidence came back. I was so grateful that I dedicated the concerto to him.Notes in the Italian Sun
In June 1900 I stayed in Italy with my friend Feodor Chaliapin, the great singer. The change of scene did me a world of good. I wrote the love duet for my opera Francesca da Rimini there, and I also began the second and third movements of the concerto. After years of silence, the music was finally coming out of me again.A Cousin Who Paid Attention to the Rent
Composing is hard enough without wondering how to pay for your room. My cousin Alexander Siloti gave me financial support, so I could write without worrying about the rent. That kind of help is easy to underestimate, and I never did. He also turned out to be the man holding the baton when the concerto first reached an audience.Two Premieres for the Price of One
Moscow heard my concerto in two installments. On 15 December 1900, I played the second and third movements in the Nobility Hall, with Siloti conducting. The audience liked them, which encouraged me to finish the first movement. The complete concerto was premiered on 9 November 1901 at a Moscow Philharmonic Society concert, with the same two of us at the piano and the podium.Three Chapters, One Story
A concerto is divided into big sections called movements, a little like the chapters of a book, each with its own speed and mood. Mine has three, and the first is marked Moderato, a steady, walking pace in C minor. The second is marked Adagio sostenuto, which means slow and sustained, and it rests in the gentler key of E major. The third is marked Allegro scherzando, lively and a bit playful, and it travels from C minor to a bright C major, so the whole thing takes about 34 minutes.Ink on the Page
A. Gutheil of Moscow published the concerto in 1901. Siloti took it abroad soon after and played it in Leipzig in January 1902, with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Arthur Nikisch. In 1904 I received the Glinka Award for it, which came with 500 rubles. I won't pretend the money was unwelcome.Crossing the Atlantic
I played the concerto in the United States for the first time on 8 November 1909 in Philadelphia, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Max Fiedler. The critics there were mostly dismissive. That didn't stop me from keeping it in my repertoire for the rest of my life, and I played it 143 times. My last performance was at the Hollywood Bowl on 18 June 1942.The Critics and the Crowd
Critics have often been unkind to this concerto, even long after I wrote it. Audiences have never agreed with them, and the listeners of Classic FM voted it number one in their Hall of Fame in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Filmmakers love it too, and you can hear it in Brief Encounter in 1945, in Rhapsody in 1954 and in The Seven Year Itch in 1955. It seems the people who listen for pleasure have the last word.A Second Life in Other Hands
Other musicians kept finding new uses for my music. Fritz Kreisler arranged the second movement for violin as Preghiera in 1940, and Percy Grainger turned the third movement into a piece for solo piano in 1946. Years later the band Muse drew on the first movement in "Space Dementia" in 2001, and on the second in "Butterflies and Hurricanes" in 2004. One small oddity remains: my Suite No. 2 for two pianos was published after the concerto, yet it carries the lower number, Op. 17, while the concerto is Op. 18.---
I wrote this concerto at a time when I was finding my way back to myself, and I'm still moved by how well that road turned out. The music that began in a quiet room with a doctor's patient care went on to be played in concert halls far from Moscow. I played it myself 143 times in my lifetime, and I never stopped finding something new in it. Did you enjoy learning about the backstory of my Piano Concerto No 2? There is still a great deal more to discover about it, from the way the three movements fit together to the many places its melodies have travelled since. Critics were often unkind to it, yet audiences have loved it from the start, and I find that a comfort. If you'd like to keep exploring, please click on the links provided and let the music carry you a little further.