Sergei Rachmaninoff - Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9: I. Moderato-Allegro vivace 
performed by Rostislav Dubinsky, Yuli Turovsky, Luba Edlina

Camille Saint-Saëns - The Carnival of the Animals: XIII. Le cygne (The Swan) 
performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3 No. 1. Élégie in E-flat minor 
performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 - Variation 18: Andante cantabile 
performed by Artur Rubinstein, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Sergei Rachmaninoff - The Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 - Symphonic poem after Arnold Böcklin 
performed by Valery Polyansky and Russian State Symphony Orchestra

Rachmaninoff first saw Arnold Böcklin’s popular painting, The Isle of the Dead, in a black-and-white reproduction in Paris in 1907. He was so haunted by this mysterious image, with its solitary island-bound boat bearing a coffin, that he began to write music almost at once, without even waiting to see the full color original. When he later traveled to Leipzig to view one of the five different versions Böcklin painted of The Isle of the Dead, he said nothing could match his first impression—he even suggested that he might never have composed The Isle of the Dead had he seen the painting first. (The fourth of Böcklin’s canvases was destroyed in World War II. Another of the paintings belonged to Hitler for many years; it is now in the collection of the National Gallery of the State Museums of Berlin.)

likeafieldmouse:

Alexander Scriabin - Prelude Op. 11, No. 8 in F-sharp minor
Performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Prelude No. 10 in B minor, Op. 32: Lento 
performed by Sviatoslav Richter

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Prelude No. 5 in G minor, Op. 23: Alla marcia 
performed by Sviatoslav Richter

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Four Pieces: Romance in F-sharp minor: Andante 
performed by Nils Franke

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 
performed by Emil Gilels

omg