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Robert Winston's Musical Analysis

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Music: Classical

Exploring the relationship between the music and the medical conditions of composers

Series in which Professor Robert Winston explores the relationship between the music and the medical conditions of composers who suffered mental and physical illness

Robert Winston's Musical Analysis: Series 2

Robert Winston's Musical Analysis: Series 2: Episode 1: Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Episode 1

Episode 1: Sergei Rachmaninoff

Series 2

BBC Radio 4 - Robert Winston's Musical Analysis, Series 2, Sergei Rachmaninoff

Prof Robert Winston investigates how Rachmaninov's career was saved by hypnotherapy.

Prof Robert Winston investigates how hypnotherapy helped save Rachmaninoff's career, and a theory to explain a problem for performers of his piano music: his enormous hand span.

Professor Robert Winston brings together his expertise and experience in science and medicine with his overriding passion for music, to explore the relationship between the music and the medical conditions of composers who suffered mental and physical illness. 

Rachmaninoff's second Piano Concerto has become one of classical music's most enduring hits, but it was almost never composed at all. The composer suffered an extreme creative block following the catastrophic premiere of his first symphony. After three years of silence, a hypnotherapist, Dr. Dahl, effected a cure and rescued his career. Prof. Winston also investigates evidence that a medical condition was responsible for Rachmaninoff's famously large hand-span, with pianist Peter Donohoe demonstrating the difficulty this presents for would-be performers of his music.

Producer: Chris Taylor.

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Robert Winston's Musical Analysis

Series 2

Episode 1: Sergei Rachmaninoff

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