it is reminiscent of the music of Robert Schumann. The nocturnes were published posthumously in Moscow in 1949, but were not assigned an opus number. The Four Pieces of 1887 are perhaps Rachmaninoff's first comprehensive works. Each has a clear aim and method to attain it, and all unfold with a fluency significantly more advanced than that shown in the previous nocturnes. The opening Romance, in F-sharp minor, harks back to Frédéric Chopin's tenderness. The E-flat minor Prelude is an unremarkable but well-thought out piece. The third, a Mélodie in E major, is modestly expressive, but the Gavotte in D major is, although repetitive, the most energetic and vigorous piece. These were published posthumously in Moscow in 1948, without an opus number. In 1890, after vacationing at Ivanovka, his family's summer residence, Rachmaninoff wrote a letter to Natalia Skalon, a family friend in Moscow, reporting that he had to write a fugue for Arensky's class, "an unpleasant circumstance however you look at it." It turned out to resemble a canon more than a fugue, however, and was published in 1949 as Canon in E minor. Although written as an assignment, the piece conveys the impression not of an academic contrapuntal exercise but rather of a vivid outburst. The texture and harmony show enough advancement over his earlier Four Pieces to indicate that he had been sensible not to publish them as his opus 1. In 1891, Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 (which became his first official opus) and afterwards in July, a small piece, Prelude in F major, which he revised later to include the cello. It was at this time, in 1892, that the Morceaux de fantaisie were composed. In 1891 Rachmaninoff also composed his Suite in D minor for orchestra, which he could not get performed in its full orchestra form and thus made into a solo piano reduction, the score for which was discovered in 2002 in Alexander Siloti's archive. The suite is in four movements: Lento: Allegro moderato in D minor, Lento in B minor, Menuetto in F-sharp major, and Allegro in D major. He spent much of the next few years writing some of his orchestral pieces, including The Rock (1893) and Caprice bohémien (1895). His return to pianistic work in early 1896 was marked by his contribution to Four Improvisations, a collaboration with Anton Arensky, Alexander Glazunov, and Sergei Taneyev. After the