About Rachmaninoff's cuts:

I think Rachmaninoff made these more because he was insecure in the
face of negative audience reaction rather than out of any basic aesthetic
dissatisfaction with his works.  I think he described in a letter how, when
he played his Corelli variations in a recital, he would 'improvise' cuts
depending on the number of coughs he got.

Felix Delbruck
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