Rachmaninoff wrote the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini between 3 July and 18 August 1934. Audiences everywhere instantly took to the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and it quickly became an indispensable repertory piece.

Icarus was one of my heroes (or antiheroes, depending on the interpretation)— the winged boy who dared to fly too close to the sun.