Edna Hobson (soprano)
Colin Horsley (piano)
George Thalben-Ball (organ)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, George Stratton)
Conducted by Basil Cameron
From the Royal Albert Hall, London

Part 1

The theme of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody is the one used by Brahms for his two sets of variations for piano solo, Op. 35. Rachmaninov gives us twenty-four continuous variations, and an interesting point is that after a brief introduction the first variation is heard before the statement of the theme. In the course of the work a version of the Dies Irae is introduced. It may not at first be apparent that the wonderfully ingratiating and romantic variation in D flat, which sounds so characteristic of Rachmaninov, is merely an inversion of the Paganini theme, transposed into the major.