Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2 - triumph of self-belief over self-doubt

Last week, I luckily stumbled upon two timeless classics - David Lean's 1945 film 'Brief Encounter' and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2, the source of the film's background score.

- SATISH KUMAR SHARMA

The film tells the story of a brief and intense but doomed love affair between two married persons - a housewife and a doctor. The background music conveys their understated emotions - love, joy, conflict, guilt and loss and captures the pathos of their tragedy, beautifully.

The concertois a dazzling composition which has been repeatedly voted No.1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame in the UK's biggest annual poll of classical music. It has also been used in Marilyn Munroe’s ‘The Seven Year Itch’ and Clint Eastwood's ‘Hereafter’ and in popular songs like Frank Sinatra’s ‘Full moon and Empty arms’ and Eric Carmen's “All by Myself” (also sung by Celine Dion).The concerto’s influence can also be glimpsed in some old Hindi film songs.