BBC Music

The Secret Island - Sergei Rachmaninov in Exile (1992x1)

Air date: Oct 10, 1992

Composer, conductor and one of the greatest pianists in the history of music, Rachmaninov seems to be the model of the essential romantic artist - sad, obsessed with death, isolated from homeland and culture. Yet at the same time he was a convivial friend and devoted family man. This portrait, written by British composer Gerard McBurney , presents the paradoxes and contrasts of a mysterious creative personality, drawing on previously unseen home movies of the composer. With pianists Howard Shelley and Hilary Macnamara.