Piano Concerto No. 2 · II. Adagio sostenuto

At a glance

• What it isthe slow second movement, Adagio sostenuto, of a three-movement piano concerto.
• Who, when, whyRachmaninoff wrote it after recovering from years unable to compose following his First Symphony's failure. The complete concerto premiered in Moscow in 1901.
• What to listen forthe woodwind melody passed back and forth over the piano's gentle ripples, and the climax in the middle.

Listen for

• The openingmuted strings open quietly with a few chords that shift key.
• Flute and clarinetover the piano's rippling figures, the flute begins the melody and the clarinet continues it.
• The middle and endthe piano speeds up into a short, heated solo, then settles back into the opening calm.

When it was written

After the disastrous 1897 premiere of his First Symphony, Rachmaninoff, then in his twenties, wrote almost no major works for several years. Treatment with the physician Nikolai Dahl in 1900 restored his confidence, and that year he began this concerto. He played the solo at the 1901 premiere, and it was a great success. In gratitude he dedicated it to Dr Dahl.

Rachmaninoff was a pianist famous for his large hands, so his piano writing is full of widely spread chords. In this movement, too, the piano's broad ripples wrap around the melody.