Sergey Rachmaninov felt compelled to compose ‘because I must give expression to my feelings, just as I talk to give utterance to my thoughts’. His fame as a pianist initially overshadowed his stature as a composer, but it is the emotional intensity and lyrical expressiveness of scores such as the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini that we appreciate today. The youthful and sweepingly extrovert First Piano Concerto has hints of Tchaikovsky, while the marvellous Fourth Concerto is truly emblematic of Rachmaninov’s glorious final creative period.