The "Rach 3" as it's sometimes called, strikes fear into the heart of lesser pianists--but not Stewart Goodyear, who will be heard as the soloist in a new recording on the next Symphony @ 7 on Classical 101. His elegant and polished reading belies the thorny technical difficulties of this famously challenging work.
To show what he's made of, the young Canadian-born pianist played all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas in a marathon concert in Dallas earlier this year. Last year Goodyear released a well-received recording of the Tchaikovsky and Grieg piano concertos. So, we know he's got the stuff to tackle Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor.
Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote the third of his four piano concertos in 1909 in the idyllic and nurturing setting of his family's country estate in Russia. Completing it in late September, he had to practice the piece on a silent keyboard while en route to the United States for the concerto's premier in New York on November 28 with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Society. A second performance followed a few weeks later with Gustav Mahler conducting the New York Philharmonic, an experience that Rachmaninoff treasured.
Dubbed "Rach 3," this big Late-Romantic showpiece with Stewart Goodyear and the Czech National Philharmonic with Heiko Mathias Foerster concducting was released on the Steinway & Sons label paired with the popular Second Piano Concerto in C-minor. You can bet the Steinway he used got quite a workout.
In an interview earlier this year, Goodyear said that his family's nurturing environment and love of music gave him an insight into humanity: "Humans, before they discovered any other feelings, the first thing they had within them was love. People should never bury that. It may be a naive and simple sentiment but it drives me forward." Artistic sentiment and technical ability combine to drive Stewart Goodyear's new recording of Rachmaninoff.
Join me Thursday evening on Symphony @ 7 on Classical 101.