Rubinstein. Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor, Op.70. This work, composed in the 1870s, is perhaps the most popular and successful of Rubinstein’s five piano concertos. It is reminiscent of Camille Saint-Saëns’s second piano concerto which was first performed in 1868 by Saint-Saens himself and conducted by his good friend, Anton Rubinstein. The opening movement of Piano Concerto No.4 immediately establishes a reflective, dreamy mood with a lovely theme repeatedly drawing ones attention to a profusion of scintillating arpeggios and breathtaking flights up and down the keyboard. The andante starts with the horns projecting a sort of hunting-call motif and then unfolds the theme with stylish melancholy - ever more dreamy and beautiful. The reflective mood gives way to a good-humoured, brilliant finale where the piano and orchestra almost seem to compete in a headlong rush to a closely contested finish.

Rachmaninov. Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, composed in 1934, was inspired by the theme used by Paganini as the basis for a set of solo violin variations forming the last of Paganini’s 24 Caprices. The Paganini theme led Rachmaninov to use the sequence of another complimentary theme that formed part of the Latin Requiem Mass, the Dies irae. Rachmaninov had used this second melody in The Isle of the Dead and it also appeared in his last work, the Symphonic Danses. Although the Rhapsody seems in its original form not to have had programmatic significance, the composer provided a narrative explanation for Fokin’s ballet Paganini. The choreographic version of the legend has the great violinist selling his soul to the devil in return for perfection as a violinist and for the love of a woman. The Dies irae supposedly represents the devil and the original theme is Paganini himself. Without doubt, the variations that make up the Rhapsody include episodes of lyrical tenderness that form the romantic middle section followed by the overwhelming devilishness of the last six of the 24 variations.