Inspired by the painting by the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin, Rachmaninoff composed his symphonic poem in the spring of 1909, completing it while on tour in Dresden just two weeks before the premiere - given in Moscow on 1 May 1909 with the composer conducting the Moscow Philharmonic. The score reproduced here is an authoritative Soviet score issued some time after the composer"s death. As with all PLP scores a percentage of each sale is donated to the amazing online archive of free music scores and recordings, IMSLP - Petrucci Music Library.