By the time Rachmaninoff graduated in piano, composition, and conducting from the Moscow Conservatory of Music, he was only 18 and had already composed a number of works. Today, he is recognized as the most popular of the late romantic Russian composers for his piano and orchestral works. His career, however, got off to a rocky start. First, it was the 1893 death of Tchaikovsky, whose music had profoundly inspired his own. Then, his first symphony was performed in 1897, only to be greeted with devastating reviews. While Cesar Cui mocked the composition, many in the audience noted that Glazunov, who was the conductor, was drunk! In any event, the result caused Sergei to fall into a long dark depression.

Psychotherapy and hypnosis, administered by Dr. Dahl, eventually bore results leading to the composition of his second piano concerto, which he dedicated to the good doctor. With the composer at the piano, it premiered in 1901 to rave reviews. That proved to be a turning point in his career. Soon, he was comfortably settled in Moscow, married to his cousin Natalia, composing and teaching, and the proud father of two daughters.

In 1909, Rachmaninoff was in Dresden where he composed the concerto we are to hear today. Because it is considered one of the most technically challenging works for any pianist to attempt, only the most gifted, or intrepid do so. Svetlana Smolina, who has thrilled our audience many times in the past, is here to wow us yet again.

No sooner had Sergei finished writing this concerto than the 37-year-old embarked on a wildly successful tour of the United States. There, in New York's New Theatre, he was the soloist in performing this work with the New York Symphony Society, under Walter Damrosch, on November 28th, 1909. Though that performance left something to be desired, a second performance, some eight weeks later conducted by Gustave Mahler, set the work on a trajectory that still shows no sign of slowing down.

The concerto follows the three-movement convention, albeit with the second movement leading into the third without a pause. The allegro first movement is in sonata form, starting with a diatonic theme which soon becomes highly complex. The second theme begins deceptively quietly as an exchange between piano and orchestra. The adagio second movement could loosely be described as a theme and variations until the piano ends with a brief but powerful, connecting cadenza leading into the final movement. Finally, the unconventional third movement contains variations on themes used earlier in the work before taking a long, unrelated digression. This trailblazing concerto ends, as it should, on a triumphally passionate note.

Program note by Ian  A. Fraser