The Rach 3

In the world of classical music, people casually refer to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 as just the "Rach 3." We went to the last concert in our symphony series yesterday and it was a good finale, featuring this notorious piece of music.  The Rach 3 was popularized in the 1996 movie Shine.  There's a memorable scene when the boy's piano teacher shows him a plaster cast of Rachmaninoff's gargantuan hands. Few pianists (living or dead) have that kind of strength and finger span, so playing the Rach 3 is still considered the Mt. Everest of piano.

The Rach 3 is so fiendishly difficult it drove the pianist David Helfgott into insanity, at least in the movie version of the story. After performing it in concert, Helfgott collapsed from mental and physical exhaustion and went into a psychotic episode that lasted several years.

I don't know how many people have been driven mad by Rachmaninoff's music, but the Rach 3 is one of the biggest and most demanding piano concertos. The concerto is respected, even feared, by pianists. 

Rachmaninoff composed this concerto at his peaceful country estate in 1909 and he premiered it himself in New York shortly after.  He dedicated it to pianist Josef Hofman who never "got around" to playing it in public saying it "wasn't for him."  And other pianists have steered clear, too.  Gary Graffman later regretted he did not learn the concerto as a student, when he was "still too young to know fear."

Proofing copies of the diabolical Rach 3 (1910)

It's a crowd pleaser.  And as they say, the pianist needs a flair for it. Steven Hough (a favorite guest artist) played it yesterday and everyone jumped from their seats at the finish in a roaring ovation.  We like doing that out here in Seattle. At times the orchestra could hardly keep up with him, but Steven walked away from the piano looking none the worse for wear.  And that was the fourth time he played it in the past four days.  If nothing else, you have to admire that stamina.