Rachmaninov and Stravinsky

Occupying opposite ends of the 20th century musical spectrum, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov both spent much of their artistic lives united in exile from Russia, working out their own relationships with their homeland’s heritage.
Rachmaninov was one of the last of the romantics, and a composer whose passionate and nostalgic music captivates every new generation of music lovers. Russian Winter includes all four of his Piano Concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody played by some of the finest pianistic talents in the world today.
In comparison, Stravinsky’s journey from the lush impressionism of The Firebird to the neo-baroque cool of Dumbarton Oaks covers a bewilderingly vast distance. Glimpses of his Russian-ness are reflected through his extraordinary originality, especially in the four great ballet scores presented here, and in his groundbreaking amalgam of opera, tone poem and theatre, The Soldier’s Tale.