lacking conventional morals with regard to money, yet demanded tremendous loyalty from his friends and colleagues. His life was as dramatic as his music. Bought up in a provinciai Leipzig theatrical household, he secured a place as conductor of an opera Company in Würzburg by the age of twenty. His mature style emerged slowly, during which time he came near to starving in Paris. Later he rose to the post of musical director of the Dresden Opera but was outlawed for his part in the 1849 Dresden uprising. During his fifteen years in exile he evolved his theories of music drama paid from all quarters, but the obituary in The Times summarised the Situation most succinctly, pronouncing him, "the greatest musician of our time”. FÜRTHER READING: Michael Tanner: The Faber Pocket Guide to Wagner (Faber) WEBSITE: www.wagneroperas.com Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) PIANO CONCERTO NO.1 IN F# MINOR, OP.1 1 Vivace 2 Andante and commenced work on the Ring (a drama taking four nights to perform) and finished Tristan und Isolde (1859). By 1864 his life reached crisis point; his creditors pursued him across Europe, he embarked on an affair with the wife of his most devoted disciple (the conductor Hans von Bülow) and the fruits of ten years of composition lay unperformed. At this point the eighteen year old King Ludwig II of Bavaria, already obsessed by Wagner’s music, summoned him to Munich, settled his debts and put his resources at the Service of realising Wagner’s ambitions. His later years were devoted to the building of a theatre in the small town of Bayreuth to which pilgrims would (and still do) travel to see and hear his work. The strain of bringing the project to fruition and the composition of the final sacred stage festival play, Parsifal (1882), put an unbearable strain on Wagner’s heart. He died, suddenly, in Venice in February 1883. Tributes were 3 Allegro Vivace Rachmaninov was one of the greatest living pianists of the last Century. His concerts attained near legendary Status and he was one of the busiest recording artists of his day with over 100 recordings to his name. Some of his success as a pianist (beyond sheer talent) rests with Nikolay Zverev to whom Rachmaninov was sent for lessons in autumn of 1885 and in whose apartment he lived until 1889. Zverev imposed a regime of cast-iron discipline on the young and rather lazy pianist, with practice starting at 6am and continuing throughout the day. This work ethic instilled in Rachmaninov a discipline, technique and knowledge of music that helped establish him as one of the leading musicians of his generation. But Rachmaninov also was discovering the magic of writing his own music. Starting tentatively with some small piano pieces in 1887, he quickly progressed to an orchestral ►13