Sergey Rachmaninoff, also spelled Rakhmaninov, or Rachmaninov, was the last great figure of the tradition of Russian Romanticism and a leading piano virtuoso of his time. He is especially known for his piano concerti and the piece for piano and orchestra titled "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini". Rachmaninoff was born into a musical family. Even before his graduation as a pianist in 1891, Rachmaninoff had composed what was to become his best-known work, the Prelude in C sharp minor. The premiere of his First Symphony was a disaster while his Second Piano Concerto is notoriously one of the most frequently performed of all works in the genre. After the October Revolution in 1917, Rachmaninoff left Russia to never return.