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'Farewell, my poor hands': Sergei Rachmaninoff's best assets may also have been his undoing

By
Editorial Staff

Among Sergei Rachmaninoff's greatest musical gifts were his hands. Dextrous, fast and enormous, Rachmaninoff's hands, and his unfailing knowledge of what to do with them, gave him millions of fans, thousands of recitals, near-constant touring and millions of dollars. But, those same hands came with a cost — quite possibly the cancer that took his life.

The latest installment of Classical (De)composition, a video series written by CBC Radio 2's Tom Allen, places us in the capacious and capable hands of music's most feared and, in some ways, most tragic virtuoso pianist and composer. Illustrations by Kim Hiscocks. Watch it below.

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