A great musician who heard the universe as a powerful, boundless space resounding with the sounds of bells at once both tragic and triumphant, Rachmaninoff left Russia and became a part of a completely different world…

As I stood at his grave, I found this space resonating within me. When I returned home, I began writing a piano cycle.

In this cycle, Rachmaninoff writes letters to postmodern composers. Rachmaninoff himself was an anti-modernist. He was not a revolutionary, was never „ahead of his time,“ and was unafraid of looking old-fashioned. At first glance, it would seem that he bore no influence on late 20th/early 21st century composers. Nonetheless, his invisible, magical presence can in fact be heard in the music of some composers, including so-called „contemporary classical“ composers and rock musicians. Likewise, when I hear Rachmaninoff‘s endless melodies that evolve from a very short motive of literally two or three notes, the word „minimalism“ all but rolls off my tongue… However, these connections are so subtle and not readily apparent that I wouldn‘t want to deaden them by invoking musicological terms.