Alpesh Chauhan
Stephen Hough Thomas Adès
Sergei Rachmaninoff

British Thomas Adès (b. 1971) is one of our time's most performed orchestral composers. He caused a stir with the chamber opera Powder Her Face in 1995, and the orchestral suite in three movements has become one of his most famous works. The opera is about the Scottish socialite and Duchess Margaret Campbell, the main character in one of the biggest sex scandals of the 1960s. The opera also caused a stir with its very explicit content, but for Thomas Adès, it was primarily a springboard to significant assignments and fame.

The Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) was a scandal-ridden superstar on his instrument in the 19th century. He was also a composer, and his music set a new standard for violin technique. Most famous is a collection of solo pieces from early in his career called 24 Caprices. Caprice No. 24 is a series of breakneck virtuoso variations and has inspired many composers since. In 1934, Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote 24 new variations based on the one caprice and collected them in Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini for piano and orchestra.

Sergei Rachmaninoff had his big breakthrough in 1901 with Piano Concerto No. 2, and the next few years were hectic with little time to compose. The solution was to move to Dresden with his family for three years - a city with a fantastic music scene where he simultaneously could remain anonymous. Loneliness bore fruit − Rachmaninoff completed Symphony No. 2 in 1907 and conducted the first performance himself in St. Petersburg in January 1908. The symphony was a new triumph for the composer and, to date, is by far the most popular of his symphonies.