Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)

Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, between June 1900 and April 1901. The work cemented his reputation as a composer of concertos and remains one of his most beloved pieces.

The composer had suffered a severe psychological crisis after the disastrous 1897 premiere of his First Symphony. Although he continued to produce short piano pieces, songs, and choral works, and worked as an opera conductor, his confidence was shattered. In January 1900, he met Leo Tolstoy, hoping to overcome his creative block, but harsh criticism of his song "Fate" (Op. 21-1) only deepened his despair. Following this failed meeting, his relatives arranged for him to see neurologist Nikolai Dahl. From January to April 1900, Rachmaninoff underwent daily hypnotherapy and supportive therapy sessions aimed at improving his sleep, mood, and appetite, and reigniting his desire to compose. That summer, he felt "new musical ideas began to stir" and resumed work.

In July 1900, before beginning the concerto, he composed the "Love Duet" from the opera *Francesca da Rimini* (completed in 1906). This piece marked his creative rebirth. He then started the concerto in autumn 1900, working first on the second and third movements, as the first movement proved difficult. On 15 December 1900 (2 December O.S.), these two unfinished movements were premiered with Rachmaninoff as soloist and his cousin Alexander Siloti conducting. He completed the first movement in 1901, and the full concerto premiered triumphantly on 9 November 1901 (27 October O.S.), again with the same duo. The publisher Gutheil released the work that same year. Rachmaninoff dedicated the concerto to Dahl, crediting him with restoring his health and compositional confidence.

The concerto’s origins trace back to the failure of his First Symphony. Composed between January and September 1895, the symphony was scheduled for a March 1897 premiere in Saint Petersburg. Despite prior successes—including the Moscow Conservatory Great Gold Medal and praise from Tchaikovsky—Rachmaninoff was nervous. The performance was a disaster, partly due to the reportedly drunk conductor Alexander Glazunov. Critic César Cui savaged the piece, writing that if a conservatoire existed in Hell, a student tasked with composing a symphony on "The Seven Plagues of Egypt" would have succeeded brilliantly, like Rachmaninoff. Initially aloof, Rachmaninoff later suffered a psychological breakdown that halted his composing for three years. He turned to heavy drinking and depression, though he continued performing. He accepted a conducting post at Savva Mamontov’s Moscow Private Russian Opera from 1897 to 1898 for income, but left due to lack of time and the theater’s incompetence, relying on piano lessons instead.

In late 1898, Rachmaninoff was invited to perform in London in April 1899, expected to play his Second Piano Concerto. He wrote to the London Philharmonic Society that illness prevented him from finishing it. Declining to play his First Piano Concerto, which he dismissed as a student piece, he instead offered to conduct an orchestral work and perform piano pieces, including his popular Prelude in C-sharp minor. The society agreed, and his conducting debut was successful. Secretary Francesco Berger invited him to return the next year with the First Concerto, but Rachmaninoff promised a newer, better one—though he did not perform it there until 1908. Meanwhile, conservatory peer Alexander Goldenweiser hoped to play the new concerto at a Belyayev concert, assuming it would be finished. Rachmaninoff, who had considered composing it three years earlier, wrote to Goldenweiser that nothing had been written.

Through the summer and autumn of 1899, his unproductiveness worsened his depression. A friend of the Satin family suggested he visit Leo Tolstoy, but the visit only increased his despondency and self-criticism, leaving him unable to compose. The Satins, concerned for his health, persuaded him to see Dr. Nikolai Dahl.