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Rach 3

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3 hasn't failed to impress me. I had heard a lot about it being considered the most difficult concerto of all...and now that I've heard it, I can see why even the greatest piano veterans revere and fear it.

My list of the Top 4 Piano Concertos of all time are:
  1. Beethoven's Emperor Concerto
  2. Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor
  3. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1
  4. Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3
The common trait among them all is that they are exceptionally flamboyant, something that Mozart's compositions never tried to attain.

BTW, the photo shows the legendary Van Cliburn playing Rach 3 in the final round of the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Cliburn went on to become the legend that he is today. Coincidentally, I remember reading an article (in the Reader's Digest) about a certain Japanese guy (Jon Nakamatsu) who had won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1997 playing ...guess what, Rach 3!
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