Rachmaninov's First Symphony has a somewhat checkered history, in no small part due to a quite possibly drunk Glazunov conducting the first performance. Despite its initial lukewarm reception, it is now seen as a vibrant depiction of Russian civilisation and culture, recognised for its fluid, longing and expressive features. The English composer and academic Robert Simpson calling it 'a powerful work in its own right… convinced, individual, finely constructed, and achieving a genuinely tragic and heroic expression'.