Tuesday December 1, 2009


Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Jeffrey Kahane, conductor; Olga Kern, piano
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Opus 30 (10/18/09)
Also, Anatol Liadov: The Musical Snuff Box, Op.32
Olga Kern, piano
Harmonia Mundi 907399 Track 13 2:45
Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op.21 No.2
Olga Kern, piano
Harmonia Mundi 907392 Track 1 7:30


Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Opus 30
I. Allegro ma non tanto
II. Intermezzo: Adagio
III. Finale: Alla breve

``I wrote it for elephants,'' said Rachmaninoff about his third piano concerto, referring to the strength and endurance needed to play it. Intended for use during his first American tour, the work was begun during the summer of 1909. By October 19--the day of his departure--he complained: ``These last few days I have been working like a convict on hard labor, in an attempt to finish my new concerto before I leave.'' He practiced on a silent piano during the ocean voyage.
Walter Damrosch conducted the first performance, with the New York Symphony Orchestra, on November 28, 1909. The program notes called the new work ``Russian throughout, Russian in its melodic conception, in its rhythms and in the robust, virile qualities even of its gentler passages.'' The critics were less kind. ``Sound, reasonable music this,'' wrote the New York Sun, ``though not a great or memorable proclamation.''
Two months later, Rachmaninoff played the Concerto with Gustav Mahler and the New York Philharmonic. Rachmaninoff said that Mahler ``devoted himself to the concerto until the accompaniment, which is rather complicated, had been practiced to the point of perfection, although he had already gone through another long rehearsal. According to Mahler, every detail of the score was important--an attitude too rare among conductors. Though the rehearsal was scheduled to end at 12:30, we played and played far beyond this hour and when Mahler announced that the first movement would be rehearsed again, I expected some sort of protest from the musicians but I did not notice a single sign of annoyance. The orchestra played the first movement with a keen or perhaps even closer application than the previous time.''
This time the critics were more enthusiastic. The reviewer for the New York Herald wrote: ``The work grows in impressiveness upon acquaintance and will doubtless take rank among the most interesting piano concertos of recent years, although its great length and extreme difficulties bar it from performances by any but pianists of exceptional technical powers.''
By 1923 Rachmaninoff regarded his third as his favorite piano concerto. ``I believe in what might be called indigenous music for the piano,'' he said in an interview. ``So much has been written for the instrument that is really alien...Even with my own concertos I much prefer the third, because my second is uncomfortable to play.''
Musicologist Joseph Yasser pointed out the similarity between the opening theme of the first movement and the Russian orthodox chant Thy Tomb, O Savior, Soldier's Guarding. Rachmaninoff disagreed: ``The first theme of my Third Concerto is borrowed neither from folk song nor from church sources. It simply `wrote itself!' If I had any plan while composing this theme, I was thinking only of sound. I wanted the melody to `sing' on the piano as a singer would sing it--and to find a suitable orchestral accompaniment, or rather one that would not muffle this singing. Thus, I aspired to impart neither a folk-song nor a liturgical character to this theme.'' The tune returns in the middle movement and its rhythm recurs in the finale.
The score calls for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals and strings.