Following the success of his Second Piano Concerto in 1901, Sergei Rachmaninoff's career took off and evolved successfully in three directions. He continued to compose, including his Symphony No. 2 in 1906-07, he traveled extensively both at home and in Western Europe as a virtuoso pianist, and he was a sought-after conductor. He tried to apportion his time evenly among the three.
Rachmaninoff composed the Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1909 for a long-planned first tour of the United States, where he would be featured in the exhausting capacity of wearing all three hats. He was ambivalent about the tour and significantly pressed for time. He did not begin the Concerto until June, taking a silent keyboard with which he practiced assiduously during the crossing. The tour and the Concerto were an artistic and financial success. And just as Haydn had been wooed to make his permanent home in London after the success of his "Salomon," or "London," symphonies, both the Boston and Cincinnati Symphonies offered Rachmaninoff their podiums, which he turned down. Ironically, in 1917, he was forced into exile in Paris, his fortune confiscated, and his estate demolished during the violence of the Russian revolution. He continued to tour the United States, primarily as pianist, and with the imminence of war in Europe in 1939, he eventually relocated with his family in Beverly Hills, where he died.
The Concerto premiered on November 28, 1909, with the New York Orchestra under Walter Damrosch and was repeated two months later with the same orchestra under Gustav Mahler. Unfortunately, we know nothing of what transpired between these two giants. The Concerto gained immediate and enduring popularity, especially with pianists. It requires immense stamina from the soloist and attests to the composer's melodic inventiveness and his outstanding pianistic abilities.
The opening movement is particularly rich in thematic material, with new ideas and moods introduced throughout. Over the throbbing orchestra, the piano enters on the third measure with a sad melody, the melancholy mood prevailing throughout the elaborate development of the theme. The staccato second theme, introduced by the strings, is converted by the piano into a flowing melody. The extended cadenza includes brief duets with woodwind soloists from the orchestra. Finally, the opening theme returns, and the movement ends in a whisper.
The Intermezzo is a fantasy on a single theme presented first on the oboe, followed by a variation by the orchestra, and finally by the soloist. The orchestra and piano continue in numerous permutations and variations that vacillate between moodiness and passion. You're not wrong if you think you hear occasional references to the first movement's opening melody! A faster and livelier waltz-like variation, a duet between the piano and solo clarinet, brightens the mood towards the end of the movement. But the oboe leads the movement back to the opening mood, interrupted by an exuberant display of pianistic brilliance that leads without pause into the Finale.
The brilliant third movement features more references back to motives from the first movement. Rachmaninoff saves the most sparkling writing for the piano in this culminating movement. It includes several elaborately decorated variations on both the opening and second themes. In a surprise move, a broad romantic melody announces the conclusion.
