Summary: "Rachmaninov Symphony #1" Though far from the composer's best work—he was but 23, and in the earliest stages of his career, at the time of its composition—the First Symphony is far from the unqualified failure suggested by its initial reception. It is, instead, a large, ambitious work that attempts to expand the bounds of the Russian symphony beyond the works of Tchaikovsky by incorporating music of the Russian Orthodox church. Because of the failure of the Symphony, Rachmaninov began to drink immoderately. By the end of 1899, he was an alcoholic whose hands shook, imperiling his keyboard career. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Pcast115
