Monday Music Appreciation #39: Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3

I'm so delighted that the symphony season has started once again (I'm back to my dream job!), and I must say that the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Guest Conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and 25-year-old Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko started the season with a triumphant rendition of the concerto you'll hear if you click on the video below. Jaeden was just incredible and deserved every one of his three (or was it four?) standing ovations on Friday night. Wow.

I'll never cease to be amazed by musicians. Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote this exceedingly technically challenging concerto in the summer of 1909, but didn't have enough time to practice it before taking it (on an ocean crossing -- I think Orville and Wilbur Wright were still working the bugs out of their aeroplane at that point) to New York for its premiere that November. No piano on the ship, so he practiced on a paper keyboard! Imagine!

And the young man below is just as accomplished -- Yunchan Lim from South Korea is just 20, and knows his way around a keyboard with his eyes closed, I'm sure. The beauty and complexity of this concerto has been singing with me all day as I process tomatoes and relive the magic of symphony and piano working together so beautifully (I especially love from about 35 minutes onward). I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.