One of the last of the Romantics, Sergei Rachmaninoff remains among the most popular of the 20th-century Russian composers.
During his lifetime, however, he was more celebrated as a pianist -- especially in the years he spent in the United States. We'll hear both sides of him this Thursday night in a historical recording of Rachmaninoff as piano soloist in his own Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. in a performance with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, made in 1934 and now available as digital audio.