Afternoon Performance: Rachmaninov's Symphony No.1

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord”. And taking his cue from those thunderous words, the young Rachmaninov hurled himself into a First Symphony on a formidable scale. Dark, turbulent and burning with unrequited passion, this is music as gothic melodrama – lost (but later recovered) when its composer fled the Russian Revolution for a life of exile.