It goes without saying that Rachmaninoff was one of the towering figures of early 20th-century music (well, perhaps better as 19th-century music caught in the wrong century). As a composer, he is responsible for some irrefutably great works; one thinks immediately of the All Night Vigil (a.k.a. "Vespers"), The Bells, and, of course, the piano concertos (including the Paganini Rhapsody).

As a pianist, he was a giant--literally and figuratively--but I don't think, in general, he was very good at playing his own music. His recording of the G minor prelude, for example, is positively frantic. But on this recording of his greatly-admired second piano concerto, I think he does a wonderful job.