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Sergey Rachmaninov was the last, great representative of the Russian Romantic tradition as a composer, but was also a widely and highly celebrated pianist of his time. His piano concertos, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and his preludes famously test pianists' skills. His Symphony No. 2, the tone poem Isle of the Dead, and his Cello Sonata are also notable. The passionate melodies and rich harmonies of his music have been called the perfect accompaniment for love scenes, but in a greater sense they explore a range of emotions with intense and compelling expression.

Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninov, born in Semyonovo, Russia, on April 1, 1873, came from a music-loving, land-owning family; young Sergey's mother fostered the boy's innate talent by giving him his first piano lessons. After a decline in the family fortunes, the Rachmaninovs moved to St. Petersburg, where Sergey studied with Vladimir Delyansky at the Conservatory. As his star continued to rise, Sergey went to the Moscow Conservatory, where he received a sound musical training: piano lessons from the strict disciplinarian Nikolay Zverev and Alexander Siloti (Rachmaninov's cousin), counterpoint with Taneyev, and harmony with Arensky. During his time at the Conservatory, Rachmaninov boarded with Zverev, whose weekly musical Sundays provided the young musician the valuable opportunity to make important contacts and to hear a wide variety of music.

As Rachmaninov's conservatory studies continued, his burgeoning talent came into full flower; he received the personal encouragement of Tchaikovsky, and, a year after earning a degree in piano, took the Conservatory's gold medal in composition for his opera Aleko (1892). Early setbacks in his compositional career -- particularly, the dismal reception of his Symphony No. 1 (1895) -- led to an extended period of depression and self-doubt, which he overcame with the aid of hypnosis. With the resounding success of his Piano Concerto No. 2 (1900-1901), however, his lasting fame as a composer was assured. The first decade of the 20th century proved a productive and happy one for Rachmaninov, who during that time produced such masterpieces as the Symphony No. 2 (1907), the tone poem Isle of the Dead (1907), and the Piano Concerto No. 3 (1909). On May 12, 1902, the composer married his cousin, Natalya Satina.

By the end of the decade, Rachmaninov had embarked on his first American tour, which cemented his fame and popularity in the United States. He continued to make his home in Russia but left permanently following the Revolution in 1917; he thereafter lived in Switzerland and the United States between extensive European and American tours. While his tours included conducting engagements (he was twice offered, and twice refused, leadership of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), it was his astounding pianistic abilities which won him his greatest glory. Rachmaninov was possessed of a keyboard technique marked by precision, clarity, and a singular legato sense. Indeed, the pianist's hands became the stuff of legend. He had an enormous span -- he could, with his left hand, play the chord C-E flat-G-C-G -- and his playing had a characteristic power, which pianists have described as "cosmic" and "overwhelming." He is, for example, credited with the uncanny ability to discern, and articulate profound, mysterious movements in a musical composition which usually remain undetected by the superficial perception of rhythmic structures.

Fortunately for posterity, Rachmaninov recorded much of his own music, including the four piano concerti and what is perhaps his most beloved work, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934). He became an American citizen a few weeks before his death in Beverly Hills, CA, on March 28, 1943. ~ Michael Rodman, Patsy Morita

Best known as an opera conductor, Antonio Pappano expanded his activities into orchestral music in the late '90s. Since 2002, he has been the music director of London's Royal Opera at Covent Garden.

Pappano was born to Italian immigrant parents in Epping, Essex, U.K., on December 30, 1959. His father was a chef who was a tenor singer and a voice teacher on the side. Pappano started piano lessons at age six. After several years, he resolved to make the piano a career. When Pappano was 13, his family moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, so that his father could take a full-time music teaching job. Pappano took piano lessons with Norma Verrilli and held a variety of jobs that included being a pianist in a cocktail bar. Later, he studied composition with Arnold Franchetti and conducting with Gustav Meier, but at the time, he had no ambition to become a conductor. He became a rehearsal pianist at the New York City Opera and then at the Frankfurt Opera. "The traditional route for conductors is via the piano, working with singers in the opera house. That's how it worked for me," he told the London Independent. Pappano also did rehearsal work with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and there, he attracted the attention of conductor Daniel Barenboim. Barenboim hired Pappano as an assistant, and in 1987, Pappano made his debut at the Norwegian Opera. By 1990, he was the music director there, and in 1992, he was named to the same position at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. He made his recording debut there in 1996, conducting a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Orchestre Symphonique et Choeurs du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie.

In 1993, Pappano caught a major break when he subbed for an ailing Christoph von Dohnányi, leading a new Vienna State Opera production of Wagner's Siegfried. Guest conducting appearances at houses in Britain and around Europe followed. Late in the decade, he added orchestral appearances to his résumé, serving from 1997 to 1999 as a guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic and appearing with the Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many other orchestras. In 2002, Pappano was named the music director of the Royal Opera Covent Garden, a position he held through 2024; Jakub Hrůša was designated his successor, taking up the baton in 2025. In 2005, Pappano also became the music director of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, continuing to hold that position through the early 2020s. Pappano has a substantial catalog of well over 80 albums, predominantly, but not exclusively, devoted to opera. Pappano has recorded many of the core works of the Italian opera repertory for the EMI Classics label. He also conducts German and French opera enthusiastically, as well as a variety of instrumental music that has included a set of Leonard Bernstein's three symphonies with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in 2018. In 2020, Pappano conducted a new recording of Verdi's opera Otello, starring Jonas Kaufmann in the title role and, once again, featuring the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He and that orchestra moved to Warner Classics in 2022 for a recording of Rossini's Messa di Gloria, returning the following year with Puccini's Turandot with Kaufmann in a lead role. ~ James Manheim

Leif Ove Andsnes is Norway's foremost pianist. His repertoire is large; with the music of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg as a touchstone, it has been centered on the core Romantic piano repertory but has extended back to Mozart and forward into the 20th century. A world favorite among buyers of recordings, he has issued a large catalog of albums on the Virgin Classics, EMI, Warner Classics, and Sony Classical labels, among others.

Andsnes was born in the small city of Karmøy, in southwestern Norway, on April 7, 1970. As a child he loved to play Grieg's music, and in 1986 he entered the Bergen Conservatory, studying with Jiri Hlinka. A year later he gave his debut recital in Oslo, winning the Hindemith Prize that same year. His international career wasn't long in coming: he performed at the Edinburgh Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1989 and made his U.S. debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, under Neeme Järvi, in 1990. The 1990s decade saw Andsnes perform with most of the world's major orchestras and at top venues including not only the BBC Proms and New York's Carnegie Hall, but also a New York City Apple store. He toured with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the Danish Radio Orchestra. He has also played chamber music with Christian and Tanya Tetzlaff, and in 1991 he founded his own Risør Festival of Chamber Music in Norway, remaining its director until 2010. An admirer of Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti, Andsnes has cultivated a style with the same kind of limpid sparkle.

Particularly significant has been Andsnes' career as a recording artist, which has been greeted with almost universal critical acclaim. His recording catalog began as accompanist to cellist Truls Mørk in music by Chopin and Schumann on Norway's Simax label in 1990. The following year he moved to Virgin Classics, and in the late 1990s to EMI. Many of his albums began to appear on the Warner Classics label in the mid-2000s decade, and in 2012 (a year in which he notched five major-label releases) he was signed to Sony Classical and began a Beethoven Journey series of Beethoven's piano concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Andsnes from the keyboard. In 2018 Andsnes released an album of Chopin ballades and nocturnes on Sony. Andsnes has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, including in 2019, for an album of Schumann's lieder with Matthias Goerne. ~ James Manheim