Most difficult movement of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3?

[arvhaax93]

And the least difficult?

[orangesodaking]

I've heard the third is the killer. My current teacher said he was asked to perform it in three weeks... He hadn't ever played it. He said he learned the first movement and it was "kind of easy." He learned the second movement and it was "kind of easy." When he got to the third movement, he said "To hell with this." (He finished it, just not in three weeks, lol!)

My former piano teacher said when HE learned it, after the first page it was just one technical difficulty after another...

But I think the third is considered the hardest of the three. Not sure about the first two (which one is easier).

[richard black]

Never having performed the concerto, I'd say the third is the hardest movement. I can see how I could, given time, get the first two up to a respectable standard, but the third seems to me in a different league.

[awesom_o]

Having played the Concerto, I can comfirm that the 3rd mvnt is by far the most difficult.
Not nearly as difficult as the original version of the 2nd Sonata, but still hard as hell...much trickier than the 2nd Concerto, which I have also played.
The first two movements of the D minor both have some difficult sections, but in the third movement, almost all of the sections are difficult.

The entire piece, as well as most pieces by Rachmaninov, requires a substantial technique in order to sound good.

[jlskiles]

I've heard the third is the killer. My current teacher said he was asked to perform it in three weeks... He hadn't ever played it. He said he learned the first movement and it was "kind of easy." He learned the second movement and it was "kind of easy." When he got to the third movement, he said "To hell with this." (He finished it, just not in three weeks, lol!)

My former piano teacher said when HE learned it, after the first page it was just one technical difficulty after another...

But I think the third is considered the hardest of the three. Not sure about the first two (which one is easier).

just for the record, rachmaninoff wrote four piano concertos. but yes i would agree that the third is the hardest of the four.

[mikeowski]

just for the record, rachmaninoff wrote four piano concertos. but yes i would agree that the third is the hardest of the four.

The question was which movement of the third piano concerto is the hardest and not which of Rachmaninoff's concerti is the hardest, though.

[jlskiles]

third movement is definitely the hardest

[iwagman18]

The third movement is just hell, put plainly. Literally, if you've played the third movement, you've been through hell and back. It's by far more difficult than either the first or second movements. Believe it or not, it's not technically impossible. In fact, it is very playable. The problem is that so many people perform it but can't actually PLAY it, if you know what I mean. Some performances have perfect notes and rhythms but are so boring or awful-sounding that they make me want to put a bullet through my head. Also, the voicing is just plain ridiculous. There are places where there are three or four voices voices in the right hand, and no one short of Ashkenazy, Kissin, Orozco, Bronfman or Rachmaninov himself can play those lines beautifully.

As for the other movements, the first movement is probably the most playable (and the easiest to sound good on), as I played it but still can't play the other movements. The second is more difficult, but it's definitely playable. You just need really good voicing and a very "quicksilver" touch, especially in the faster waltz section (F# minor).

Also, it sucks when I'm listening to the second movement on YouTube, and you know how it ends in a musical cliffhangar? (it ends on the 5-chord and resolves into the first chord of the 3rd) Well, the movements were all in separate videos, and the internet crashed before the third mvt loaded, so I couldn't hear the chord resolve! I was so miserable and I couldn't eat drink or sleep for 6 hours until the internet launched up again.

[bonesquirrel]

I have not fully completed any of them, but I have practiced sections of all three movements. The choice would be between the 1st and 3rd. The third has big fat monstrous chords, especially near the end, which can easily tire the pianist along with making it harder to focus. The first also has big monstrous chords, as well as lots of extremely speedy single notes. Despite them both being similar, the first movement has some slow parts which will make it easy to regain stamina and focus for the next big set of chords. So personally, Id state that the third movement is the superior movement.

[jlskiles]

Also, it sucks when I'm listening to the second movement on YouTube, and you know how it ends in a musical cliffhangar? (it ends on the 5-chord and resolves into the first chord of the 3rd) Well, the movements were all in separate videos, and the internet crashed before the third mvt loaded, so I couldn't hear the chord resolve! I was so miserable and I couldn't eat drink or sleep for 6 hours until the internet launched up again.

That is the reason I stopped listening to itunes radio. For some reason it plays the second mvt of rach 3 quite often on the rachmaninoff channel and that half cadence drives me nuts.

[compline]

Here is the maestro himself playing Piano Concerto no. 3 ,
in 4 parts.

.

It is interesting to not that The Third was dedicated to Josef Hofmann, who, though regarded by Rachmaninoff as the greatest pianist of the day, did not play the Third in his lifetime.

.