Talk:Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)
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Yep, I was showing someone the wikipedia, he edited that page, and I ended up merging the stuff from that page to this one. He's looked over it and it's all there now. Flamingantichimp 05:35, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)
This was added by someione as a new article named "Piano Concerto No. 3", perhaps in can be merged into the article here? Written in the peaceful setting of his family's country estate, Ivanovka, the Third Concerto in D Minor, opus 30, was completed on the 23rd of September in 1909. It is widely considered as the hardest concerto ever written. Mr. Rachmaninoff wrote this piece in order to showcase his own talents not only as a composer, but as a pianist. Evegeny Kissin once said that Rachmaninoff's talents were not "virtuosity for the sake of virtuosity"; instead, they were an incredible combination of passion and musicality. It is feared by all pianists. Joseph Hoffman, the man to whom the work is dedicated never attempted to play it, saying that it wasn't for him. The piece was publicly performed for the first time by him on November 28, 1909 with the New York Symphony Society under Maestro Walter Damrosch. However, due to time constraints, he could not practice the piece while in Russia. Instead, he took a silent keyboard with him on the ship to the US and started, and finished, working on it. Kosebamse 03:47, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)
I just want to express my opinion about Vladimir Feltsman being on the list as 'among the popular recordings'. I have personally never heard of his name, let alone hearing the recording, and I own somewhere around 40 recordings of Rachmaninov 3rd. Is it really a great recording? 66.131.96.92 07:07, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
- Little lists like these tend to get cluttered up with everybody's personal idea of 'popular'. The Feltsman only has two reviews on Amazon, though they're both 5-star reviews. (Apparently Feltsman takes the cuts and does the light cadenza.) - mako 08:41, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] best recordings
Although not mentioned in the article, of the many versions I've heard over the past years, I would like to recommend the very best version, which in my opinion is the performance by Jorge Bolet recorded with Haitink conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Brilliant technique, unique musical interpretation and astonishing orchestration ... just to make anyone interested aware of this ...
Reply to: == best recordings ==
I added mention of what seems to be the most highly regarded recording of the Rach 3rd in recent years, that of Leif Ove Andsnes with the Oslo P.O. under Pavlo Berglund. I did a pretty exhaustive search for the best recording of this work, listening to about 30 performances, some of my favorites of which were those of Byron Janis, MikHail Pletnev, and Martha Argerich. I've only heard streaming snippets of Bolet's recording, not really enough to form much of a judgment, but I imagine it is quite good, especially considering how masterful Haitink was in his recording of the Rach 2nd with Ashkenazy.
I prefer the Andsnes version most of all for its elegance and cohesiveness. The tone of his piano is exceedingly beautiful, and the reverberance of the hall strikes a great balance bewteen fullness and clarity.
