0:00:02 > 0:00:04PIANO MUSIC PLAYS
0:00:09 > 0:00:14A lugubrious countenance, a life beset by tragedy,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17the general consensus is that there's little joy
0:00:17 > 0:00:21about the life and music of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44This is a classic tale of right man, wrong time.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49Born in Russia in 1873 and dying in America in 1943,
0:00:49 > 0:00:54not only did Rachmaninoff weather the false accusation that he was an anachronism,
0:00:54 > 0:00:59someone writing gushing sentimental romantic music in a firmly modern age,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03he also lived through one of the most abject periods in recorded history.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20So why on earth is this called The Joy Of Rachmaninoff?
0:01:20 > 0:01:25Well, despite the critical brickbats and a pervasive sense of Slavic gloom in his live,
0:01:25 > 0:01:30there remains above all the time-transcending triumph of his music.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32In his own words,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36"Even with the disaster that has befallen the Russia where I was happiest,
0:01:36 > 0:01:41"I always felt that my music remained essentially and spiritually the same,
0:01:41 > 0:01:46"unending and obedient, trying to create beauty."
0:01:46 > 0:01:48HE TOASTS IN RUSSIAN
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Every classical music documentary
0:02:22 > 0:02:26ought to have a preposterous statue in it and this will pretty well do the trick.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28This purports to be Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Now, in real life, he doesn't really look like this.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34He had a kind of Savile Row dapperness and aloofness,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37and there's more than the whiff of a Hollywood cowboy about this.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Kind of appropriate, given how much of Rachmaninoff's music ended up on the big screen,
0:02:41 > 0:02:47but his life began here in Novgorod in Imperial pre-revolutionary Russia.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07CHURCH BELL RESOUNDS DEEPLY
0:03:11 > 0:03:15This is one of the defining sounds of Russia,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18the bells of the Orthodox Church.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23In this case, the astonishing St Sophia's Cathedral in Novgorod.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Rachmaninoff's grandmother took the young boy here
0:03:27 > 0:03:31and this very sound had a deep, resounding impact.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33BELLS CHIME
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Rachmaninoff later wrote,
0:03:47 > 0:03:52"The sound of bells dominated all the cities of Russia I used to know.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56"They accompanied every Russian from childhood to grave,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00"and no composer could escape their influence."
0:04:13 > 0:04:15MAN SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:04:20 > 0:04:22An aristocratic child prodigy,
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Rachmaninoff entered the Moscow Conservatory at the age of 12 to study piano.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29There his focus shifted to composition,
0:04:29 > 0:04:34and in 1892 he won the Great Gold Medal with his final work, Aleko,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37a one-act opera based on Pushkin.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40How does a precocious teenager
0:04:40 > 0:04:43follow up the success of winning a prestigious Gold Medal
0:04:43 > 0:04:45with his final student composition?
0:04:45 > 0:04:50Well, by writing a worldwide, blockbuster, smash hit of course.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55In the summer of 1892, having just graduated from the Moscow Conservatory,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58Rachmaninoff moved in with the Satin family in Moscow.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00And one of the first pieces he wrote there
0:05:00 > 0:05:04was A Prelude For Solo Piano In C-sharp Minor.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14"I heard the endless tolling of the church bells,"
0:05:14 > 0:05:18Rachmaninoff wrote, "and it just came out of me with such force.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20"And I was still a teenager."
0:05:38 > 0:05:4220th-century music... I've struggled with a lot.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45And, you know, it was at a time, I guess, as you'd know,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49when you're looking at Stravinsky and Schoenberg and these extraordinary phrases,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51you know, like, "the emancipation of the dissonance"
0:05:51 > 0:05:53and "the tyranny of the bar line".
0:05:53 > 0:05:57This kind of activism in music pushing and exploding boundaries.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01And then you have Rachmaninoff at the same time, who's just, like,
0:06:01 > 0:06:03"I'm just going to write these immense, heroic,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07fantastic, lush, romantic melodies."
0:06:07 > 0:06:10And that, I just...
0:06:10 > 0:06:12I worship him for that. I love him for that.
0:06:21 > 0:06:27This is a teenage boy who writes the most extraordinary, visceral,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29dark kind of punishing piece of music.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34I mean, think about that,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36a teenage kid writes something that dark today,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39he'd be on Ritalin and in front of a shrink within two hours.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51I have a tattoo that says Sergei Rachmaninoff in Russian.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55I'm assuming, I don't speak Russian, it looks a bit like Jeremy Paxman.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59It's in Cyrillic and it says Sergei Rachmaninoff.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02I just... A part of me, I know it sounds pretentious,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05but always just wants to carry him around with me a little bit
0:07:05 > 0:07:08and just remember just what... what a dude he was.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32Geoffrey, we have three amazing artefacts from Rachmaninoff's compositional life in front of us.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35The first is the Prelude In C-sharp Minor,
0:07:35 > 0:07:39the single most famous piece that he wrote, certainly in this lifetime.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42What does it tell us about the teenage Rachmaninoff in 1892 writing this?
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Well, in fact, he could have almost retired on the basis of this,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48I think, if they'd thought to take out international copyright
0:07:48 > 0:07:51at the time, but they didn't.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54It just completely took fire,
0:07:54 > 0:07:59I suppose because in it people recognised a sort of Slavic mystery.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03It's a very dark piece with a lot of sort of ceremony and glitter to it.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05And I think probably people saw this
0:08:05 > 0:08:09representing the Russian characteristics that they loved to explore.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16What I really mean is a sense of fatalism,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19a very powerful seam of fatalism
0:08:19 > 0:08:24that runs through Rachmaninoff's music and which all Russians recognise.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37Rachmaninoff exudes Russianness
0:08:37 > 0:08:42in the same way that Elgar exudes Englishness.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46We know what it is, but we can't quite put our finger on it.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Young Rachmaninoff's most important musical influence
0:09:11 > 0:09:16was a romantic mainline that can be boiled down to Rimsky-Korsakov and to this guy,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21the Russian giant of giants, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24MUSIC: Piano Concerto No.1 by Tchaikovsky
0:09:26 > 0:09:28Not only was Tchaikovsky a musical catalyst,
0:09:28 > 0:09:34he was a personal mentor who went out of his way to champion the teenage Rachmaninoff.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36At the premiere of his opera, Aleko,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40Tchaikovsky conspicuously leaned out of his box to applaud with all of his might,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43aware of the power of such a public endorsement.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47And whenever he could, he pulled strings on behalf of "the kid".
0:09:47 > 0:09:53And Rachmaninoff was both enamoured and flattered by the attentions of this eminence grise.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34It was here at the miraculous St Petersburg Philharmonia,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36hardly changed since back in the day,
0:10:36 > 0:10:40that Rachmaninoff debuted his most ambitious orchestral work so far,
0:10:40 > 0:10:45his Symphony No.1 In D Minor on 15th March, 1897,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49at a Russian symphony concert conducted by Alexander Glazunov.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53The world, or at least Russia, was watching.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55FANFARE
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Rachmaninoff must've been nervous about the reaction,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16because this is where he watched the performance from,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19a staircase behind the stage.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22So he saw Glazunov give the first downbeat.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29And from the outset it was clear that something was terribly wrong.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31He didn't recognise the cacophony he heard.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35The orchestra couldn't play his symphony, it was too new and too hard.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37Glazunov was making a hash of it
0:11:37 > 0:11:40and there was even a rumour that he was drunk.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Rachmaninoff's only consolation was at least from this position,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46he could make a quick and low-key getaway.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56Up until that time, he could do no wrong.
0:11:56 > 0:12:02He was the golden boy of the Moscow Conservatory in piano playing and in composition.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Everything he did was a great success.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09And suddenly, 1897 - wallop! - there's a great failure
0:12:09 > 0:12:11with the Premier of the First Symphony.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18The critics had a field day.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21The eminent composer Cesar Cui led the pack.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24He wrote, "If there was a conservatory in hell
0:12:24 > 0:12:28and if one of the composers was asked to write a symphony on the ten plagues of Egypt,
0:12:28 > 0:12:33"if it sounded like Mr Rachmaninoff, he would have fulfilled his task brilliantly."
0:12:38 > 0:12:42Rachmaninoff never allowed the First Symphony to be heard again in his lifetime.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45And the full score has never even been found,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48but I think it's a work of fierce imagination.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52It's full of varying harmonies and experimental treatment of melodies
0:12:52 > 0:12:54that are inspired by Russian Orthodox chant.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58It's simply because it was so advanced in its ideas
0:12:58 > 0:13:03that the First Symphony went beyond the audience and the orchestra that night and the critics too.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Who needs them?
0:13:17 > 0:13:24If you listen carefully to the last movement of the First Symphony...
0:13:24 > 0:13:28in all this carnivalesque celebration...
0:13:28 > 0:13:32you will hear the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39The final page of the Symphony
0:13:39 > 0:13:46seemed to pre-echo the end of the Fifth Symphony by Shostakovich,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50which was yet to be written 40 years later.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54I don't know how he knew all that.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57He must have had some prophetic...
0:13:57 > 0:14:02Like some people who have manic depressive inclinations,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06and Rachmaninoff was partly manic depressive, I believe,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09they can feel things before they happen.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Working as a conductor in Moscow,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Rachmaninoff met the great Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin
0:14:23 > 0:14:25and the pair became firm friends.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27An incident involving the duo
0:14:27 > 0:14:30would lead the singer to a compositional crisis.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33FEODOR SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:14:33 > 0:14:38By 1900, Rachmaninoff and his mate Chaliapin were the toast of Moscow.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Both aged 26, they were young bucks about town,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46and every part of Muscovite society wanted a piece of the duo.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48And on January 9th, 1900,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51they received the ultimate invitation to come here.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58This is the house of Leo Tolstoy,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01who was and is the great man of Russian literature.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05And the writer of epics like Anna Karenina and War And Peace
0:15:05 > 0:15:08was a hero for both Rachmaninoff and Chaliapin.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13And the person that they met on that cold evening in January, 1900,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15would have looked like this.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Possibly the first ever colour photograph in Russia.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25By 1900, Tolstoy had the status of a secular god in Russia.
0:15:25 > 0:15:31He had followers, he had the whole of educated society
0:15:31 > 0:15:34not just reading him but following him.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37And after Anna Karenina,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40Tolstoy gets all moralistic and serious
0:15:40 > 0:15:42and rejects the whole of civilisation
0:15:42 > 0:15:46to become a sort of pseudo-peasant.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Chaliapin later recalled,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58"Tolstoy was then living with his family in the Khamovniki district of Moscow.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02"Rachmaninoff and I climbed the wooden staircase of a very charming house.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05"Up till then, I had seen only portraits of Tolstoy
0:16:05 > 0:16:10"and now he himself appeared standing by a small chess table.
0:16:10 > 0:16:17"Rachmaninoff whispered, 'If I'm asked to play, I don't see how I can, my hands are ice cold!'"
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Of course, the duo were begged to perform.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24And Rachmaninoff chose a song that he'd recently completed called Fate,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27based on the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
0:16:27 > 0:16:31with lyrics inspired by Pushkin's The Gypsies.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38VOCALIST SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:16:59 > 0:17:02- So a song about fate as an old woman?- Yes.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06- It's kind of a striking image? - Well, it is very Russian.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09In Russia you imagine death as an old woman with the...
0:17:09 > 0:17:13- What do you...? - Scythe for cutting the corn? - Yeah, for cutting the corn.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17- This is it.- Yeah.- That's the image, so it's...- And we are the corn?
0:17:17 > 0:17:19- Yeah, we are.- Yeah.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21ALEX SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:17:31 > 0:17:35And Rachmaninoff himself tells us what happened next.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39"To describe the way Feodor sang is impossible.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41"He sang the way Tolstoy wrote,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44"and when we finished we felt that all were delighted.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49"Suddenly the enthusiastic applause was hushed and everyone fell silent.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52"Tolstoy, sitting in an armchair a little apart from the others,
0:17:52 > 0:17:56"was gloomy and cross.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59"'Is such music needed by anybody?
0:17:59 > 0:18:04"'What music is most necessary for men, scholarly or folk music?'"
0:18:04 > 0:18:08"And just to make the point completely clear, he said,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12"'I must tell you how I dislike all of it.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15"'Beethoven is nonsense, Pushkin also.'"
0:18:15 > 0:18:17TOM LAUGHS
0:18:18 > 0:18:20ALEX SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:18:30 > 0:18:35An hour later, a somewhat cooler Leo approached Sergei
0:18:35 > 0:18:38to ask for forgiveness for his earlier outburst.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44"How can I be hurt on my account," Sergei replied,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47"if I wasn't on Beethoven's?"
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Rachmaninoff never came back.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53How would you have reacted if you'd been singing to Tolstoy?
0:18:53 > 0:18:56- "Thank you very much for your opinion." - IAN LAUGHS
0:18:58 > 0:19:02This was a pivotal encounter for the composer.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05You know, even the choice of song, Fate,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09was significant for a man whose oeuvre and whose whole approach to life
0:19:09 > 0:19:11was characterised by a sense of fatalism.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16And, in fact, Tolstoy's rejection of Rachmaninoff pushed him towards a new depth of doubt.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19His self-criticism became so severe
0:19:19 > 0:19:23that the completion or even initiation of a composition became impossible.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26It was time for drastic action.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28WOMAN HARMONISES
0:19:30 > 0:19:35The turn of the century was a time of pioneering new approaches in medicine.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40And Dr Nikolai Dahl specialised in the therapeutic value of hypnosis.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43And Rachmaninoff was so desperate that instead of his usual stubbornness,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46he quickly agreed to see the good doctor,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and together they embarked upon a course of what we now call therapy.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Look into my eyes. You'll feel sleepy. Go on, look into my eyes.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55TOM'S VOICE FADES
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Little is actually known about what happened between Dahl and Rachmaninoff,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07but one thing is for certain,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11the therapy had a dramatic effect on the happiness of the young composer.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16"Although it may seem incredible," he said, "this cure really helped me,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19"and by the beginning of the summer I began to compose,
0:20:19 > 0:20:24"the material grew in bulk and new musical ideas began to stir in me,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27"more than enough for my concerto."
0:20:29 > 0:20:31- This is the Second Piano Concerto? - Yes.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35What an amazing thing to be able to handle this score and look at it,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37but before we even get to the notes, Geoffrey,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40I just want to ask you quickly about the title page,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43because the piece is dedicated to...
0:20:43 > 0:20:46- There we are to... BOTH:- Monsieur N Dahl.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50To Dr Dahl, who he said basically brought him back to compositional life.
0:20:53 > 0:20:54- Here it is.- Yes.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Is there a more famous introduction to a piano concerto
0:20:57 > 0:21:00than these semibreves and minims?
0:21:00 > 0:21:03MUSIC: Second Piano Concerto by Sergei Rachmaninoff
0:21:12 > 0:21:14- This surely is bells? - It must be, mustn't it?
0:21:14 > 0:21:19- It seems the most obvious. - Yes, the great, deep bass bell
0:21:19 > 0:21:21and the chords in the right hand.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49The opening of the Second Piano Concerto,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53the melody and the piano score is eight pages long, it never stops.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Just when you think... No, it goes on and takes..
0:21:56 > 0:21:59And I think as humans we love that, we love melody.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02What we love of Schubert, what we love the Beatles, whatever it is,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04we love something that is in our head.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08And when it's sad melody, it's particularly...
0:22:08 > 0:22:12It gets to our heart. I mean, it just permeates our being.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15And I think we all... We love to be sad.
0:22:15 > 0:22:16BOTH LAUGH
0:22:33 > 0:22:35And even in the second movement,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39the short introduction of eight chords from...
0:22:39 > 0:22:42Really that he's taken from the beginning of the first movement in C-minor and then...
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Which is this key. And then the piano comes in a very different key, E-major.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49Very simple, no melody.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Over which the flute and the clarinet weave this exquisite...
0:23:15 > 0:23:19And so on. And then the piano talks to them. It's like chamber music.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23And it's terribly simple and very unsentimental.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28And it's something like a very still lake or something very beautiful and calm.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52And that's another human emotion when we're, you know,
0:23:52 > 0:23:58exhausted with passion and you find a stillness that's not overly passionate,
0:23:58 > 0:24:02but still very beautiful with a great simplicity.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04There is a kind of... You know, he's channelling something.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06It's the human condition, isn't it?
0:24:06 > 0:24:11I think he...he writes what we feel.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15I mean, that's such genius to be able to take what's in all of our hearts
0:24:15 > 0:24:18at certain times of our life and put it into music,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22not in a schmaltzy way, but in a very real and tangible way
0:24:22 > 0:24:26that leaves us with something that we want to go back
0:24:26 > 0:24:29and have repeated listening to it.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40But where did the ideas, the melodies of the Second Concerto come from?
0:24:40 > 0:24:44Are they really the result of some hypnotic trance?
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Or are they rather the bells, the chants,
0:24:47 > 0:24:52the emotional trauma of Rachmaninoff's life transmuted into musical gold
0:24:52 > 0:24:55through his compositional alchemy of melancholy?
0:24:55 > 0:24:59We do know at least where the tunes end up,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01in films like Brief Encounter or The Seven Year Itch
0:25:01 > 0:25:05and so many other places in popular culture.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08- Rachmaninoff! - The Second Piano Concerto.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11And, more importantly, the Second Piano Concerto,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15maybe more than any other orchestral work by anyone,
0:25:15 > 0:25:20has become a feeling, a place of psychic and expressive release
0:25:20 > 0:25:23that Rachmaninoff created but that we all share.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42In the early 1900s, there was a drive to find new languages
0:25:42 > 0:25:45of dissonant harmonies and complex rhythms.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50Modernism wouldn't interest Rachmaninoff,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53but it would make him feel out of favour.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01"I feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien.
0:26:01 > 0:26:07"I cannot cast out the old way of writing and nor can I acquire the new.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10"I can't throw out my musical gods in a moment
0:26:10 > 0:26:13"and bend the knee to new ones."
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Grove's Dictionary from Mr Eric Bloom,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04who probably was a very knowledgeable...
0:27:04 > 0:27:08- A very knowledgeable critic, a very great critic.- Yes.- What did he say?
0:27:08 > 0:27:11He said, "Rachmaninoff's music, well constructed and effective
0:27:11 > 0:27:13"but monotonous in texture."
0:27:13 > 0:27:16How could it be monotonous? Very interesting.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21"Which consists of many artificial gushing tunes
0:27:21 > 0:27:25"accompanying a variety of figures derived from arpeggios."
0:27:25 > 0:27:27"Enormous popular success,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31some admirers he had in his lifetime, not likely to last."
0:27:31 > 0:27:35And it's still lasting, eh? Where are we, in 2015?
0:27:35 > 0:27:40And not only the general audiences like the nice tunes,
0:27:40 > 0:27:45great orchestras, great musicians, great vocalists love this music,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47because they think in essence
0:27:47 > 0:27:52it conveys something extremely important, something of our existence.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55Well, the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata was written in the same year
0:27:55 > 0:27:58as his famous, very famous Second Piano Concerto.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00And it inhabits something of the same world.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03It's after he came out of his big depression.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08It's not only a great romantic work, it's also a very religious work,
0:28:08 > 0:28:10and there's a lot of bells.
0:28:12 > 0:28:17And I think it's a mistake just to approach it as a romantic sonata,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19it's more than that.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22It's deeply spiritual.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15Like all the best classical music documentaries,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19I'm pushing myself close to the edge, dear viewer, and possibly beyond.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22I've absolutely no idea where we are.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24We're been driving for hours.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26I think I'm a bit hypnotised
0:29:26 > 0:29:29by the beauty but monotony of this landscape.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33I do know at least that we're travelling about 500km south-east of Moscow
0:29:33 > 0:29:37to a place of huge personal significance for Rachmaninoff.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39If we get there.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41RUSSIAN FOLK MUSIC PLAYS
0:29:41 > 0:29:44WOMEN CHANT IN RUSSIAN
0:30:06 > 0:30:07WOMEN CHANT IN RUSSIAN
0:30:11 > 0:30:13TOM LAUGHS
0:30:13 > 0:30:15Russians adore Rachmaninoff,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18none more so than in the region of Tambov,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20where disciples have lovingly recreated
0:30:20 > 0:30:24Rachmaninoff's aristocratic summer residence on the original site.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26CHANTING CONTINUES
0:30:27 > 0:30:29PIANO PLAYS
0:30:47 > 0:30:49When he wasn't performing,
0:30:49 > 0:30:54Rachmaninoff would spend his summers here at his cousins' estate of Ivanovka,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59far from the hectic swirl of Moscow deep in the region of Tambov.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04And in 1902, he would marry one of those cousins, Natalia Satina,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07and just a few years later he had inherited the whole place.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10This was inspirational therapy,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13just the tonic for a self-doubting young man.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18The landed estate, or the favoured landed estate, the ancestral home,
0:31:18 > 0:31:22was very important to the landed gentry.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24And they might have several estates,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27but there would likely be one which was home.
0:31:27 > 0:31:33And Ivanovka was that for Rachmaninoff and his extended family.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38And it would be a place where they might spend every summer.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44So country pursuits, everything from hunting to picnics,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48mushroom gathering, were part of that lifestyle.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50WOMAN HARMONISES
0:31:52 > 0:31:57I mean, we see it every time we look at a Chekhov play,
0:31:57 > 0:32:01it's that we're talking about in Ivanovka.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07"Ivanovka, 20 years of my life I spent here.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11"Every Russian feels strong ties with the soil,
0:32:11 > 0:32:15"the endless fields of wheat stretching as far as the eye can see,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18"the smell of the earth and everything that grows and blossoms.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22"I felt so good here, I could work and work hard.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27"Here, at last, I found blessed happiness."
0:32:46 > 0:32:50This photograph shows Rachmaninoff in his late 30s here at Ivanovka
0:32:50 > 0:32:55working on proofs, on copies of his Third Piano Concerto,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58I think one of his absolute masterpieces.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02Now, he wrote this piece in 1909 for his first tour to America
0:33:02 > 0:33:06and for himself to play too as a kind of calling card. What a calling card.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09Rach 3!
0:33:09 > 0:33:11It's monumental!
0:33:11 > 0:33:14It's a mountain. It's the hardest piece you could Everest play.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Well, no-one's ever been mad enough to attempt the Rach 3!
0:33:18 > 0:33:22The Rach 3, obviously. I mean, Shine, totally worth the hype.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25My God, that piece!
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Think of it as two separate melodies jousting for supremacy.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Your hands, giants, ten fingers each.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42Performing is a risk, you know. No safety net.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Make no mistake, David, it's dangerous.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48You could get hurt.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53And it gets harder even in the slow movement, "OK, slow movement, you've got time to breathe."
0:33:53 > 0:33:57And you do for, like, 30 seconds and then it's just even harder than the first movement.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01And it doesn't stop. And I would see, you know, the things he would ask you to do
0:34:01 > 0:34:04with octaves and the speed and the accuracy.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09People who can do things like that, it should be illegal in a way, it's...it's inhuman.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27There's a moment in the first movement in the solo bit, the cadenza,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30Rachmaninoff writes an alternative, a so-called ossia,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34and it is one of those moments where he's asking his interpreters,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37"Are you Rachmaninoff?"
0:35:20 > 0:35:23No! It's not good.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40Ivanovka may have inspired Rachmaninoff,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44but his melancholy and fatalism never left.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49This is Arnold Bocklin's painting The Isle Of The Dead
0:35:49 > 0:35:52and it inspired one of Rachmaninoff's finest orchestral pieces.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56He composed it in 1909, but he originally saw this painting in 1907
0:35:56 > 0:35:59in a black-and-white reproduction in Paris.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03And when he finally saw it in its vaguely Technicolor original,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07he was a bit shocked and said, "I'm not sure I'd have been able to write the music I did,"
0:36:07 > 0:36:11because he preferred in fact the gloominess of that black-and-white version that he first saw.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18The music opens with the churn,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22the push-pull of the boatman rowing the dead to this mysterious dark maw
0:36:22 > 0:36:26of the cypress grove from which there is no return.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30And Rachmaninoff writes in the centre of the piece
0:36:30 > 0:36:34music that symbolises the soul crying out memories of life and love,
0:36:34 > 0:36:36how wonderful existence was.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47But by the end of the piece,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50death returns and claims whoever the hero of this piece is.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53And as so often in Rachmaninoff's music,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56that final fatalistic victory is symbolised
0:36:56 > 0:37:01by his quotation of the terrifying ancient and arcane Dies Irae chant.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05The day of anger taking all of us to death.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20I think that...
0:37:20 > 0:37:24Rachmaninoff, like a lot of people of his time,
0:37:24 > 0:37:31was obsessed with this eschatological awareness
0:37:31 > 0:37:35of the end of the world coming soon.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37It created this incredible angst
0:37:37 > 0:37:42and sense of the expectation of a great tragedy.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44It's...
0:37:44 > 0:37:49It's a...permanent purgatorium.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54What does Rachmaninoff prophesise for us today?
0:37:54 > 0:37:59Well, I don't want to be a false prophet myself,
0:37:59 > 0:38:05back then they were obviously prophesying world wars,
0:38:05 > 0:38:10the First and the Second and more bloodshed.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12CHOIR SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:39:07 > 0:39:12In 1915, Rachmaninoff wrote his choral masterpiece, his All-Night Vigil,
0:39:12 > 0:39:13better known as his Vespers,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16based on the chants of the Russian Orthodox Church.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19It was first performed on March 10th that year
0:39:19 > 0:39:21by the Moscow Synodal Choir,
0:39:21 > 0:39:26but behind the liturgical beauty of this work lies a great sadness.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30CHOIR SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:39:34 > 0:39:41It's a work of great... transcendental power.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45And a work which...
0:39:45 > 0:39:49has the power and intent of consolation,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53to console people in grief.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00But at the same time, you can feel
0:40:00 > 0:40:03that the one who is giving this consolation
0:40:03 > 0:40:07is actually desperate himself.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12No composition represents the end of an era
0:40:12 > 0:40:14as clearly as the All-Night Vigil.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17Written as Bolshevism swept the land,
0:40:17 > 0:40:22within three years of its composition the Soviet Union had banned all religious composition.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25And that was that. The lights went out
0:40:25 > 0:40:28on a mind-boggling half a millennium of Russian church music
0:40:28 > 0:40:31and the last act was Rachmaninoff.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35CHOIR SINGS IN RUSSIAN
0:40:55 > 0:41:00Rachmaninoff's masterpiece of sacred music, the Vespers,
0:41:00 > 0:41:07that was a piece that was not allowed to be performed in Soviet times in Russia.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12But you did hear a performance of Rachmaninoff's Vespers in Soviet Russia?
0:41:12 > 0:41:16One day a friend of mine comes to me and says,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19"Are you free this evening?" I said, "Why?"
0:41:19 > 0:41:21"Because in one of the churches
0:41:21 > 0:41:28"I know that the chorus master decided to have Rachmaninoff's Vespers tonight.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32"Would you like to come to hear it?" And, of course, I ran there.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35All musicians in Moscow came there,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38because at that time in the Soviet Union,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42religious music was practically never played in the concert halls,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46but a church had the right to do it.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Since Rachmaninoff's birth, Russia had been in turmoil.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54After decades of poverty and famine,
0:41:54 > 0:41:59the proletariat and peasantry seized power from the ruling class in 1917.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03The Russian Revolution was a decisive moment for the composer.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07The whole future of Russia changed in just two days,
0:42:07 > 0:42:10on the 24th and 25th of October, 1917,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14when the Bolshevik party, led by this guy, Vladimir Lenin,
0:42:14 > 0:42:17overthrew the provisional government here in St Petersburg
0:42:17 > 0:42:20and replaced it with what would become the Soviet Union.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25Rachmaninoff, who had toughed it out when many Russian aristocrats had already scarpered,
0:42:25 > 0:42:30knew that now he really did have to get out of Russia and pronto.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49An invitation to perform in Sweden provided the perfect excuse to get exit permits,
0:42:49 > 0:42:55and the Rachmaninoffs left by train on 23rd December, 1917,
0:42:55 > 0:42:57from right here, Finlyandsky Station,
0:42:57 > 0:43:02ironically the scene of Lenin's triumphant return from exile just a few months earlier.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05And Sergei left in such a hurry that he took with him
0:43:05 > 0:43:09just one small suitcase containing a handful of compositions.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12And as the train pulled away, he would have hoped otherwise,
0:43:12 > 0:43:16but Sergei Rachmaninoff would never see Russia again.
0:43:31 > 0:43:35Well, the sort of area of Tambov, Penza,
0:43:35 > 0:43:41was really at the centre of the agrarian revolution in 1905,
0:43:41 > 0:43:45and then again even more violently in 1917,
0:43:45 > 0:43:50when peasants marched on the manors and declared rent strikes
0:43:50 > 0:43:56and, you know, later as in Ivanovka,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00smoked out the gentry by literally intimidating them
0:44:00 > 0:44:03and then burning down their manor houses.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06After Rachmaninoff fled Russia,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09he never saw his beloved Ivanovka again.
0:44:09 > 0:44:15The entire state was razed to the ground by the Bolsheviks in 1918
0:44:15 > 0:44:18and Rachmaninoff would spend the rest of his life in exile,
0:44:18 > 0:44:23for ever trying to recreate the spirit of Ivanovka.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44Rachmaninoff would come to settle in America where his fame preceded him
0:44:44 > 0:44:47and where he built a comfortable existence for himself
0:44:47 > 0:44:51thanks to a lucrative if exhausting career as a concert pianist.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53Now, he bought his first American home
0:44:53 > 0:44:57on the West Side, New York City, in 1921.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00So this was the New York of the roaring '20s -
0:45:00 > 0:45:03fast, loud, brash, jazzy -
0:45:03 > 0:45:06a total culture shock for an aristocratic Russian.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08And whether it was his homesickness,
0:45:08 > 0:45:10or the fact that he was away touring so much,
0:45:10 > 0:45:14Rachmaninoff, who'd been a major prolific composer,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18would only write half a dozen large compositions in the rest of his life.
0:45:29 > 0:45:30On a number of occasions in America,
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Rachmaninoff would commit his fingers to shellac,
0:45:33 > 0:45:38bequeathing the world stunning recordings of one of its greatest pianists.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49We spoke earlier a little bit about the third concerto
0:45:49 > 0:45:50and it's incredible to hear him play that.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53One, two, one, two.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00There's no sense of...
0:46:02 > 0:46:03It's cold.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06It's like a distant snowscape of something - very...
0:46:06 > 0:46:10and there's a coldness to Rachmaninoff as well as the heat.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17He was an introvert. He was a very shy person.
0:46:17 > 0:46:22He didn't have any of what today's virtuosos have -
0:46:22 > 0:46:24this outgoing nature.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27There's more of a... You could compare him with Glenn Gould.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30He plays without any affectation.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33Very straightforward.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37He knew that music is music and that it's not showbiz.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45He had such huge hands. I mean, if you look at his hands,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48the span, just on his left hand,
0:46:48 > 0:46:52using all five fingers, he could do C, E-flat, G -
0:46:52 > 0:46:54this is where I have to stop.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56C and then, with the thumb...
0:46:56 > 0:46:57Bloody G as well!
0:46:57 > 0:47:00- That was a single...- That was one hand.- ..on his left hand.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20In 1931, Rachmaninoff designed
0:47:20 > 0:47:25and built a refuge from his hectic American touring schedule,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28here on the banks of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Villa Senar, so-called because it's a combination of the names
0:47:46 > 0:47:48of the Lord and Lady of the manor -
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Sergei and Natalia Rachmaninoff.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55And this is a no-expense-spared attempt to recreate
0:47:55 > 0:47:59the sense of spiritual happiness that Rachmaninoff at Ivanovka
0:47:59 > 0:48:01and it proved to be a place where he really could
0:48:01 > 0:48:05gather his creative forces and compose meaningfully once again.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11It's a very modern Bauhaus design for a supposedly romantic composer.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15Senar is also the only of Rachmaninoff's homes
0:48:15 > 0:48:19to be preserved essentially as the composer knew it and I'm told inside
0:48:19 > 0:48:22are artefacts relating to the great man,
0:48:22 > 0:48:26so here I hope to commune with the spirit of Rachmaninoff.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38This suit, this is a three-piece suit here.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40Here we are. Sorry, Sergei.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42Waistcoat, jacket, plus fours and flat cap.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45I mean, this belongs to an English country gentleman rather than
0:48:45 > 0:48:49a Russian aristocrat living in Switzerland, you would have thought.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54Well, it's... It's a sign, again, of the elegance of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57There are several picture of Sergei here, in the house,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59even working, cutting wood...
0:48:59 > 0:49:01- In this suit?- In this suit.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10There's also something I wanted to show you
0:49:10 > 0:49:13because this is pretty impressive. This shows you how big the man was.
0:49:13 > 0:49:14HE LAUGHS
0:49:14 > 0:49:18- So that's only coming down to his knees and...- Yes, exactly.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21I mean, of course, it was taken apart,
0:49:21 > 0:49:22but you see he was a big man.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25It says something - as well as his stature - that says something
0:49:25 > 0:49:28about the way that the elegance is part of the personality
0:49:28 > 0:49:31and indeed possibly part of the music.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33I mean, this really is a Savile Row...
0:49:33 > 0:49:34This is a made in London suit.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37This is literally made for an English gentleman.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39It just so happens that here, Davies & Son, 1920,
0:49:39 > 0:49:44Hannover Street in London, it's made for Sergei Rachmaninoff.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48Those pieces, the two major pieces from Senar, the Third Symphony
0:49:48 > 0:49:50and the Rhapsody On A Theme of Paganini,
0:49:50 > 0:49:56what, for you, is the relationship between those pieces and this place?
0:49:56 > 0:49:59Well, I think variations number 18
0:49:59 > 0:50:03and the beginning of the second movement of the Symphony,
0:50:03 > 0:50:07they have such a serene approach...
0:50:07 > 0:50:09To the world, to life.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13It's like somebody who has found the solution,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16how to deal with all troubles, all problems,
0:50:16 > 0:50:20all disasters you can have in life
0:50:20 > 0:50:24and finally said, in any case, "Life is still something good to live."
0:50:50 > 0:50:54The 18th variation from the Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini -
0:50:54 > 0:50:55the anthem of Senar -
0:50:55 > 0:50:59played on the piano on which it was written in 1934
0:50:59 > 0:51:00and performed by Dmitri,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03the last pupil of Rachmaninoff's grandson.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08This is as close as it's possible to be today to Sergei Rachmaninoff.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29That precise variation from the Paganini Rhapsody, I mean,
0:51:29 > 0:51:31that tune that's so moving,
0:51:31 > 0:51:34- it's an inversion...- Yes. - ..of the melody...- It is.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36It's actually quite a geometric approach to it, isn't it?
0:51:36 > 0:51:38It's so powerful. It's so brilliant.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40You have the melody...
0:51:40 > 0:51:44In A-minor and you turn it around on its head, in D-flat major.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47And, suddenly, the sun comes out.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52And the sun comes out so rarely in Rachmaninoff's music
0:51:52 > 0:51:54that this moment is very, very special.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18Hearing this now, here, in this space, in this light,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20with these photos of Rachmaninoff here,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23his hands as a sort of spectral presence as well,
0:52:23 > 0:52:24a plaster bust,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28what strikes me most about this music is its generosity.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34These cascades of emotion that I'm feeling,
0:52:34 > 0:52:35and that you're feeling,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39are given with such complete direct generosity by this man.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42I think it's... It's one of the great miracles of music, this.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56You know, of everywhere I've been,
0:52:56 > 0:52:59it's this place that feels like the joy of Rachmaninoff.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39In 1939, war would return to both Russian and Europe,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42forcing Rachmaninoff to forgo these Senar vacations,
0:53:42 > 0:53:46leaving him permanently marooned on the west coast of the USA.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50Like so many immigrants,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Rachmaninoff's nostalgia for his homeland increased as the situation
0:53:54 > 0:53:56there became more and more desperate.
0:53:56 > 0:54:01Revolution, civil war, the World Wars, but Rachmaninoff's Russia
0:54:01 > 0:54:02was lost for ever.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12And he felt that pain of longing when he heard music by other
0:54:12 > 0:54:13Russian composers too.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Listening to a broadcast of Stravinsky's The Firebird,
0:54:16 > 0:54:20he said, "Lord, how much greater than genius this is.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22"It is real Russia."
0:55:03 > 0:55:07In 1942, at the age of 69, and in the middle of what
0:55:07 > 0:55:12he planned to be his last ever North American tour,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17Rachmaninoff fell seriously ill and, confined to his bed in Los Angeles,
0:55:17 > 0:55:22his wife Natalia read him Pushkin and the news from war-torn Russia.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27And as the Red Army began to turn the tide on the Eastern Front,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30the ailing Rachmaninoff uttered, "Praise the Lord.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33"May God grant them strength."
0:55:33 > 0:55:39But before Russia was liberated, on the 18th of March 1943,
0:55:39 > 0:55:41Sergei Rachmaninoff died.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00The composer was buried in Valhalla, New York.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03Rachmaninoff requested that the fifth of his Vespers be
0:56:03 > 0:56:05performed at his funeral,
0:56:05 > 0:56:08his most cherished moment in his favourite work.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14HE SINGS
0:56:31 > 0:56:33Towards the very end of his life,
0:56:33 > 0:56:38a cable came from Moscow detailing plans for an upcoming concert
0:56:38 > 0:56:41to celebrate Rachmaninoff's 70th birthday but,
0:56:41 > 0:56:45by the time it arrived, he was already in a coma,
0:56:45 > 0:56:48so he would never read these words.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52"Dear Sergei Vasilievich, on the occasion of your 70th anniversary,
0:56:52 > 0:56:57"the Union of Soviet Composers sends you warm congratulations
0:56:57 > 0:57:01"and hearty wishes in good spirits in health for many years to come."
0:57:01 > 0:57:03THEY SING
0:57:14 > 0:57:19"We greet you as a composer of whom Russian culture is proud,
0:57:19 > 0:57:21"as the greatest pianist of our time.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27"And as a brilliant conductor and public man, who, in these times,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30"has shown patriotic feelings that have found
0:57:30 > 0:57:33"a response in the heart of every Russian."
0:57:40 > 0:57:45I think, in his heart, that the real man is very deep-thinking,
0:57:45 > 0:57:47a very solitary person,
0:57:47 > 0:57:49and one with a huge amount of expression
0:57:49 > 0:57:56and not afraid of expressing really sad, deep emotions.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06You know Spinal Tap, when it goes up to 11?
0:58:06 > 0:58:09He takes it up to 11 and he does it unapologetically.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11He just takes his romantic machine guns
0:58:11 > 0:58:14and he just nukes the entire audience.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18It's so wonderful that we can talk now about this as great music
0:58:18 > 0:58:20because, really, 50/60 years ago,
0:58:20 > 0:58:23it would have been unthinkable for someone with any musicological
0:58:23 > 0:58:27background even to admit to listening to Rachmaninoff,
0:58:27 > 0:58:29never mind admiring him.
0:58:29 > 0:58:30But I think we can see him
0:58:30 > 0:58:34as one of the great 20th-century master composers.