Rachmaninov was known during his lifetime not only as a composer, but as a pianist of considerable skill and virtuosity. In its original form, the Piano Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 36, makes considerable technical demands on the performer and includes extended passages of virtuoso piano writing. The composer revised the work in 1931, cutting out extensive passages and clarifying textures. The Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22, composed in 1902 and 1903, add a series of 22 variations, well suited to Rachmaninov’s own style of performance, to Chopin’s Prelude, Op. 28, No. 20, in C minor, while the five Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3, feature some of the composer’s most characteristic music, particularly the second piece in its drama and implicit feeling of melancholy.