Who is Sergei Rachmaninoff' from The Great Pianists and what is their importance?

Sergei Rachmaninoff' is the name of a great pianist who's austere Russian appearance produced organized, impeccably delivered serious sonorities with musical elegance and exquisitely finished phrases. His aristocratic style ennobled any music he played to aim at its culminating moment called "the point," which was intrinsic to the piece itself. He left his colleagues full of respect and envy at the accuracy and deft skill with which he skimmed through complicated passages. Rachmaninoff sat quietly at the piano playing printed notes without eccentricity or sentimentality, avoiding exaggeration. Rachmaninoff was born in 1873 and became Moscow Conservatory's medal-winning composer when he graduated in 1892. He sight-read, remembered, and could play back anything he ever heard, which he never forgot. He began taking piano lessons at his own request when he was four but did not develop a concert repertoire until after the Russian revolution in 1917. He made his New York debut in 1909 but complained about Americans and their business which he found boring and all around. The Boston Symphony Orchestra offered him a post as conductor, which he refused to become an idol in his homeland Russia. He returned to America as an established pianist by 1918. He was called "The Puritan of Pianists" for his looks and sober interpretation. Rachmaninoff left a large number of recordings when he died of cancer in 1942.