In my own compositions, no conscious effort has been made to be original, or Romantic or Nationalistic, or anything else. I write down on paper the music I hear within me, as naturally as possible.…What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing.

Sergey Rachmaninoff, who was born this day in 1873, was a great figure in Russian Romanticism and a leading piano virtuoso who is especially known for his piano concerti and his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.