“Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.” - Tom Lehrer
For Music Saturday, Sergei Rachmaninoff playing his own Concerto No 2 for Piano and Orchestra. The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900. The complete work was premiered, again with the composer as soloist, on 9 November 1901, with his cousin Alexander Siloti conducting. This piece is one of Rachmaninoff's most enduringly popular pieces, and established his fame as a concerto composer.
The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat(I mov.) and A (II & III mov.), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in B flat, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, solo piano and strings. It is written in three-movement concerto form.
Simply stunning!
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