Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor: Climbing Everest
Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 has been called “the Everest of piano concertos.” Rachmaninov composed it during the summer of 1909 at Ivanovka, his estate in the steppes of southern Russia, before embarking on his lucrative first American concert tour. Without time to properly learn the solo part, the composer practiced on a “silent keyboard” during the trans-Atlantic voyage. He performed it, first with Walter Damrosch and …