London Philharmonic

We attended a concert at the Royal Festival Hall featuring the music of Rachmaninoff. There were just two pieces on the program: the Third Piano Concerto and The Bells, a symphony in four movements with chorus and three vocal soloists. The words are from a Russian translation of the famous poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

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The Third Piano Concerto, sometimes called the Rach 3, is one of the most difficult works in the piano repertoire. It was featured in the 1996 movie Shine, in which a young piano prodigy goes over the edge into insanity while trying to learn it. It was beautifully performed by Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes.