Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)

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The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 by Sergei Rachmaninoff (colloquially known as the Rach 3) is famous for its technical and musical demands on the performer. It is one of the most difficult works for piano ever written and has the reputation of being the most difficult concerto in the entire piano repertoire.

Following the form a standard concerto, the piece is in three movements:

Allegro ma non tanto
Intermezzo: Adagio
Finale: Alla breve

The third movement follows the second without pause (attacca).

1 Movements
2 History
3 Performances and recordings
4 Further reading
5 Audio sample
6 External links

[edit] Movements

[edit] Allegro ma non tanto

The first movement revolves around a sweet melody that is diatonic and moving, which soon develops into complex pianistic figuration. It reaches a number of ferocious climaxes, especially in the cadenza. Rachmaninoff wrote two versions of this cadenza: the dramatic and powerful original, commonly notated as the ossia, and a second one with a lighter, more toccata-like feel. In his recording of the concerto, the composer used the second cadenza.

[edit] Intermezzo: Adagio

The second movement consists of a number of variations around a single lush, heavily romantic melody following one another without a rigid scheme. It ends with a short cadenza-esque passage which transitions into the last movement without pause.

[edit] Finale: Alla breve

The third movement is quick and vigorous and contains variations on many of the themes that are used in the first movement, which unites the whole concerto cyclically. The last movement is concluded with a triumphant melody in major. The piece ends with the same four-note rhythm – claimed by some to be the composer's musical signature – as the composer's second concerto.

[edit] History

Written in the peaceful setting of his family's country estate, Ivanovka, the concerto was completed on September 23, 1909. Rachmaninoff wrote this piece in order to showcase his own talents not only as a composer, but as a pianist. Contemporary with this work are his First Piano Sonata and his fairly well-known tone poem The Isle of the Dead.

The concerto is respected, even feared, by most pianists. Józef Hofmann, the pianist to whom the work is dedicated, never attempted to play it, saying that it "wasn't for" him (though this must have been for reasons other than the work's technical difficulty, since Hofmann was one of the greatest technicians in pianistic history).

Due to time constraints, Rachmaninoff could not practice the piece while in Russia. Instead, he practiced it on a silent keyboard that he took with him on the ship to the US.

The concerto was first performed on November 28, 1909 by the now-defunct New York Symphony Society with Walter Damrosch conducting and Rachmaninoff appearing as the guest artist on piano at the New Theater (later rechristened the Century Theater). It received a second performance under Gustav Mahler several weeks later, an 'experience Rachmaninoff treasured' [1]. The manuscript was first published in 1910 by Gutheil. The first performance in England was given by G T Ball (later Sir George Thalben-Ball) at the Royal College of Music in London.

A typical performance lasts around 40 minutes.

It was popularized by the 1996 film Shine, which portrayed the famous Australian pianist David Helfgott performing "the hardest piece in the world" for a concerto competition at the Royal College of Music in England.

[edit] Performances and recordings

The first recording of the concerto was made by Vladimir Horowitz accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates for the HMV label in 1930.

Many other famous pianists have recorded the concerto, including Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jorge Bolet, Van Cliburn, Vladimir Feltsman, Walter Gieseking, Emil Gilels, Bernd Glemser, Stephen Hough, Byron Janis, Evgeny Kissin, Arcadi Volodos, Earl Wild, Olga Kern and Rachmaninoff himself. Cliburn played the piece when he famously won the first ever International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition.

One of the most famous recordings of the piece, known for its speed, is that of Martha Argerich performing live with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Riccardo Chailly.

A recent (1997), highly acclaimed recording of the Rach 3 is by Leif Ove Andsnes with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paavo Berglund.

According to some critics, the most technically astounding Rach 3 ever registered is a live performance by Vladimir Horowitz accompanied by the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli, available on a pirate recording made in 1941.

[edit] Further reading

W.R. Anderson: Rachmaninov and his pianoforte concertos. A brief sketch of the composer and his style. London 1947

[edit] Audio sample

Sample from Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 (file info) — play in browser (beta)

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3
30-second sample from 1st movement (Allegro ma non tanto) (5min 33sec)
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn, 1972

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