Op. 4 No. 3

Lilacs Op.21 No.5 (1902)

How fair this spot Op.21 No.7 (1902)

In the silence of the night Op.4 No.3 (1892)

Sing not to me, beautiful maiden Op.4 No.4 (1892–3)

Rachmaninov started work on his Twelve Songs Op.21 shortly before his marriage to Natalya Satin in June 1902 and completed the set on their honeymoon on Lake Lucerne a few weeks later – a situation which is not apparent in all of them but which certainly is in the two lyrical little masterpieces, Lilacs and How fair this spot, both of them particularly endearing for their modestly but beautifully written piano parts. Rachmaninov had first signalled his genius for the medium in the Six Songs Op.4 ten years earlier, above all in the ecstatic In the silence of the night and the exotically coloured Pushkin setting Sing not to me, beautiful maiden dedicated to Natalya Satina.