'It is so satisfying to have another important book about this great composer - it is comprehensive and well researched. Max Harrison writes with passion and intelligence - highly recommended'. Vladimir Ashkenazy, President of the Rachmaninoff Society

'Max Harrison slices through a century's worth of wrongheaded critical bluster and rediscovers the music of a major composer. Essential reading' - Terry Teachout

  "Harrison transcends the already considerable available scholarship on Rachmaninoff with this perspicuous work which allows the reader not only to understand how the political and practical realities of the musician's circumstances helped direct the course of his life and livelihood, but how his creative existence evolved. By avoiding overly technical discussions when analyzing Rachmaninoff's compositions, the author is able to communicate his ideas to a broad musical audience." -CHOICE, July 2006

'his knowledge both of the repertoire and of other painters are impressive...he covers everything, and enthusiastically defends the originality of Rachmaniov's later works...Three stars...for diligence.' ~ David Nice, BBC Music Magazine

David Nice

"[A] compelling narrative...'A composer's music...should be the sum total of a composer's experience.' Rachmaninov once claimed. After reading this biography you should be left in no doubt as to that statement's veracity."

Julian Haylock, Classic FM Magazine

''A widely published musical journalist, Max Harrison writes in a cultivated and comfortable British English... pleasingly free from jargon'' ''Harrison seems to have set himself the task of not only presenting the chronology and circumstances of Rachmaninoff's life and works with scrupulous clarity and care but also to refute the denigration of Rachmaninoff's original works that became fashionable when the composer settled in the U.S. after feeling the Bolshevik Revolution''   Dennis D. Rooney, ARSC Journal, Spring 2007