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Rachmaninov's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" was premiered in Baltimore in 1934 with Rachmaninov on the piano and Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. When the same program was scheduled for the Academy of Music in Philly, my mother managed to get a ticket to that concert, thanks to a cousin who played clarinet in the orchestra. My grandmother didn't want my 15-year-old mother out on the streets at night -- ridiculous because Philly was a safe city in those days -- and the ticket had to be returned. There was a lot of ill feeling over that because it was the hottest ticket in town.

In 1936 Rachmaninov came to Philly for the same program except that Eugene Ormandy had replaced Stokowski as Music Director. My mother was allowed to go to that concert, and she said the same thing: Sergei had the biggest hands she had ever seen on a man. She also said his manner at the piano was businesslike. He and Ormandy would occasionally glance at each other to be sure the orchestral cues were in the right place, and he wasn't flamboyant at the piano.

His version of "The Star Spangled Banner" was a reaction to Josef Hoffmann's bombastic version. I've played the Hoffmann arrangement, and you can hear the bombs bursting in midair. Rachmaninov wanted something more contemplative and thankful.

Three weeks before his death in 1943 from cancer, Rachmaninov became an American citizen as his final act of defiance of Stalin.