Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was born in Russia in 1873 and died in the United States in 1943. Composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, he was another of those gifts the great tyrants of Europe Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler bestowed on America. An aristocrat, an artist, a man of spiritual depth, Rachmaninoff was in every way a man of the kind that the Russian revolution wished to snuff out. Sensing this early in the revolution, he fled at the first possible moment.
The concert pianist soared to popularity in the 1960s with a swinging hybrid of classics and jazz and served as the conductor for the Philly Pops for three decades.
Peter Nero, long-time Philly Pops director, dead at 89 inquirer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from inquirer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Chopin’s two sets of Études invested the didactic keyboard study with unparalleled artistry and musical substance. Jed Distler considers a selection of the finest recordings from the past 90 years