Tune in Today: Rachmaninoff’s 18th Variation, Inspired by Paganini

Paganini’s eminently inspirational 24th Caprice found new form, fashion, and listeners in Rachmaninoff’s capable hands.

The 18th variation of "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" is the most startling of Rachmaninoff's variations.

It’s the summer of 1934. The world is in turmoil, plagued by economic depression and the rise of political tyrannies. But in a house on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, one of the last great pieces of Romantic music is taking shape. 

The occupant of the house, Sergei Rachmaninoff, is a hopelessly out-of-date composer. The Russian-born expat pens scores in the fashion of his idol, Tchaikovsky, surrounded by a musical world that has long since moved on to more stringent and percussive works.