Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor & Babadjanian: Heroic Ballad

Is it still necessary to introduce Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto ? This emblematic work of late Romanticism was composed between 1900 and 1901. It is much cherished by the public and even a few pop stars such as Eric Carmen (with his song All By Myself covered by Céline Dion), who found the gates of Heaven in the slow movement’s theme. This concerto was a sort of “resurrection” for the young Russian composer, three years after the severe depression brought on by the failure of his First Symphony.