Miscellaneous solo piano compositions (Rachmaninoff)

Whether completed as a child or adult, these pieces cover a wide spectrum of forms while maintaining his characteristic Russian style.

In the autumn of 1885, the twelve-year-old Rachmaninoff entered the home of Nikolai Zverev to receive private piano instruction and at the end of May 1886, Zverev took his students to Crimea, where Rachmaninoff continued his studies, hoping to gain entrance to Anton Arensky's harmony class at the Moscow Conservatory.

[2] After admission to the class, he produced more exercises, the earliest of which is a Lento in D minor; it is the only surviving piece of ten he is said to have composed.

[3] Now beginning to compose independently, Rachmaninoff's next project was a group he titled Three Nocturnes, and is regarded as his first serious attempt at writing for the piano.

[4] The first nocturne, in F-sharp minor, was written 14–21 November 1887, and has three parts: a beginning and an end in andante cantabile and a central section in allegro.

The slower andantes are gentle sections, influenced by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, while the allegro is unnatural and stiff and unusually fast for a nocturne.

Each has a clear aim and method to attain it, and all unfold with a fluency significantly more advanced than that shown in the previous nocturnes.

His return to pianistic work in early 1896 was marked by his contribution to Four Improvisations, a collaboration with Anton Arensky, Alexander Glazunov, and Sergei Taneyev.

[8] After the Six moments musicaux were completed in 1896, Rachmaninoff composed a single Morceau de Fantaisie in G minor on 11 January 1899.

The Prelude in D minor, a dark piece with thick and fast moving chords that repeatedly descend into low register, is a manifestation of his unhappiness with the October Revolution.

[11] Davie was given permission to make use of the piece by the composer's great-granddaughter, Natalie Wanamaker Javier, while attending the 2006 International Rachmaninoff Conference in Amsterdam.