Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini was his last and at the same time most significant work for piano and orchestra. As a cycle of variations on Paganini’s 24th Caprice from op. 1, it stands in the tradition of the great works on this famous theme by Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. “It’s something for the audiences”, wrote the reviewer of the New Yorker about one of the first performances of this Rhapsody with the composer at the piano, “the succession of brilliances for the p...