Sergei Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, composed in 1909 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, has the reputation of being one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire. Rachmaninoff composed the concerto in Dresden completing it on September 23, 1909. Contemporary with this work are his First Piano Sonata and his tone poem The Isle of the Dead.The concerto is respected, even feared, by many pianists. Josef Hofmann, the pianist to whom the work is dedicated, never publicly performed it, saying that it "wasn't for" him. Gary Graffman lamented he had not learned this concerto as a student, when he was "still too young to know fear".Due to time constraints, Rachmaninoff could not practice the piece while in Russia. Instead, he practiced it on a silent keyboard that he brought with him while en route to the United States.The concerto was first performed on Sunday afternoon, November 28, 1909, by Rachmaninoff himself, with the New York Symphony Society with Walter Damrosch conducting, at the New Theater (later rechristened the Century Theater).
Piano: Anna Borysivna Fedorova (Ukrainian: А́нна Бори́сівна Фе́дорова; born 27 February 1990) is a Ukrainian concert pianist. Fedorova performs as soloist, chamber musician and with symphony orchestras in the major concert halls of the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Ukraine, US, Mexico, Argentina, and Asia. Fedorova is a David Young Piano Prize Holder supported by a Soiree d’Or Award and Keyboard Trust. She was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR. Both her mother, Tatiana Abayeva, and father, Boris Fedorov, have been concert musicians, scholars, and teachers. From the time she was two years old, she always wanted to go to the piano. She began playing at age five. She gave her first public recital when she was six, and she gave her national debut at the age of seven, at the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine. Regarding her early childhood, Fedorova has said that, with both parents being professional pianists, there was always "the sound of the piano in the house." Her parents gave her lessons, and she said that "they were decisive for my musical development."
