Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 03/01/2008, uploaded on 12/21/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sergei Rachmaninoff completed his Third Piano Concerto on September 23, 1909. Like many of his mature works, it was composed at his family’s idyllic estate at Ivanovka, but it shares a common element—the mysterious key of D minor—with two works that he began while staying in Dresden—namely, the First Piano Sonata and the symphonic poem Isle of the Dead. For the composer, this concerto was his favorite, remarking on one occasion that his Second concerto was “so uncomfortable to play.” Pianists and the concert-going public, however, have disagreed with composer and instead prefer the earlier work. Interestingly, it is the Third concerto that is the more difficult and virtuosic work, leading many pianists to shy away from performing it. Like all of his concertos, it is written in the Classical three-movement form, but in this case, the second and third movements are played without break and are bridged by a quasi-cadenza for the soloist.

Rachmaninoff left Russia shortly after completing the work for the United States, practicing it on a silent keyboard he took with him for a premiere that took place only two months later with the composer accompanied by the New York Symphony Society lead by Walter Damrosch. He performed it again in January 1910 with Gustav Mahler and the New York Philharmonic. Despite these performances, the latter of which was particularly treasured by the composer, the Third Piano Concerto failed to impress in the same manner as its predecessor. Hoping to make the work more accessible and popular, Rachmaninoff approved several cuts to the forty-five-minute concerto, trimming its total time by some ten minutes. However, it is rare indeed that a cut to a well-crafted work can be made without sacrificing its artistic unity, but for decades after its publication, the Third concerto was performed in its diminutive form. In recent years, a greater interest among pianists has gratefully emerged in performing Rachmaninoff’s original un-cut edition.      Joseph DuBose