Three years after his third piano concerto was finished, Rachmaninoff moved with his family to a house in Rome that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky had used.[1] It was during this time in Rome that Rachmaninoff started working on his second piano sonata.[1] However, because both of his daughters contracted typhoid fever, he was unable to finish the composition in Rome. Instead, Rachmaninoff moved his family on to Berlin in order to consult with doctors.[1] When the girls were well enough, Rachmaninoff traveled with his family back to his Ivanovka country estate, where he finished the second piano sonata.[2] Its premiere took place in Kursk on 18 October 1913 (5 October in the Julian calendar)

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