The other day, I treated myself to the manuscript version of Rachmaninoff’s fourth piano concerto, which I had never heard before. This version, dated sometime in late August of 1926, is the original version of the piece that the composer premiered that year, before revising it twice to cement what we know now as his fourth concerto. The music in this first iteration reveals a strikingly unfamiliar side of the composer....
I’ve been tired and uninspired lately, so I will just take a moment to rattle off some thoughts about Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F. Feel like I could give the Romantic era business a rest anyway. Our good friend Dmitri wrote a bunch of brooding, controversial symphonies, but in this concerto, there is a nice slice of his more cheerful side, as can be found too in the Festive Overture and ninth symphony....
Rachmaninoff’s fourth piano concerto is one of these works that, together with the third symphony and the Symphonic Dances, represents the last stage of the composer’s musical output. This was his least prolific period of composition, and as well the period that is vastly less popular with concert-goers. The concerto itself has neither the pianistic showmanship of the third nor the thematic inspiration of the second, while its melodic material is woven into some very unfamiliar harmonic language....
I bought my tickets for last night’s concert with the San Francisco Symphony last fall when I was under the spell of an almost child-like excitement over this season’s programming of popular masterworks. In particular, the 2009-2010 season has seen the symphonies of Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Rachmaninoff, as well as a few other big names from the middle Romantic era. The piece from last night’s concert that motivated my purchase was Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, performed by Christian Tetzlaff—a violinist of modest stature with a powerful sound....
This last Saturday marked the 100th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto. I don’t know if there were any performances anywhere to commemorate the piece, but then again, we don’t often commemorate pieces. Usually, it’s the life of the composer we celebrate. Still, I like to think about the significance of a musical work coming into existence, to fill an ethereal space where once there existed a musical void. Before November 28th, 1909, no one knew what the third concerto by Rachmaninoff sounded like, save the composer himself....