Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

THE STORY

Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto ranks today as one of the most beloved yet ambitious pieces in the concerto repertoire. Compared to the Second from a decade earlier, the Third is robust and its expansive length (roughly 40 minutes) demands impressive technical prowess from the soloist. 

Composed in Europe, the work premiered during Rachmaninoff’s first American tour in November, 1909, with Walter Damrosch leading the New York Symphony Society; two months later, Gustav Mahler conducted it with the New York Philharmonic. The composer was at the piano for both performances. Rachmaninoff had high regard for Mahler’s solid preparation of the work, noting that he had “devoted himself to [the Third] until the accompaniment, which is rather complicated, had been practiced to the point of perfection.” As a conductor himself, Rachmaninoff could appreciate Mahler’s treatment that “every detail of the score was important—an attitude too rare amongst conductors.” 

LISTEN FOR

• The opening theme, composed of only a few notes: as the composer stated, “[It] is borrowed neither from folk song forms nor from church sources. It simply ‘wrote itself’!” Rachmaninoff wished to “sing the melody on the piano, as a singer would sing it.”
• A densely chromatic Intermezzo, rich with interweaving inner voices led by the strings
• The Finale, arrived at without pause from the second movement, wherein the triumphant D major rises among rich sonorous chords typical of Rachmaninoff

INSTRUMENTATION

Solo piano; two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings