It’s true what they say about composers with big hands; they have big concertos. Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov’s four piano concertos are about as big as they come – epic themes, sweeping Russian melodies and a pianistic virtuosity equal to the composer’s own skill at the piano.
That said, his Piano Concerto No. 1 is something of a problem child, as suggested by the fact that it was dwarfed in popularity by his second and third concertos. First composed at the precocious age of 19, it was heavily criticised on first reception. Does it have an underwhelming third movement? Yes. Is the structure a blatant rip off of Grieg? Sure. Was this an unequivocal and unbridled declaration of a young man’s genius? Rachmaninov takes all of 40 seconds to answer that one.
The director Lars von Trier believes that the soundtrack to the apocalypse might be the intro to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. He may change his mind after listening to the late Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter’s rendition of the first piano concerto. From the opening chords that thunder all the way to the final cadenza in the first movement to the snowfall-like arpeggios of the second movement, listening to Richter bring out the essential darkness of this work can persuade almost anyone that the end of the world, as inevitable as it may be, might just be worth fighting against.
Which is why it’s fitting that Richter looks like an elderly Lex Luthor on the cover of this edition. Hearing his grave octave-thrashing makes you feel like you’re witnessing a grander struggle with forces that are physically and spiritually impenetrable—where even the biggest can’t bail you out.
