Filarmonica della Scala - Milan / Riccardo Chailly

Everest of the piano, Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 unfolds with herculean power. Kirill Gerstein takes on the challenge before Riccardo Chailly reveals the allure of one of the most lush scores in the repertoire. There is perhaps no piece in the entire repertoire for piano and orchestra as demanding as Concerto No. 3 (1909), a ultimate challenge in many respects for any self-respecting virtuoso. A technical feat, it is above all an intensely expressive work, from its melancholic introduction to the final fire where soloist, orchestra, and conductor unite in a joyful epiphany. With Scheherazade (1888), based on tales from the Thousand and One Nights, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a particularly brilliant work. An ethereal tone meets an epic breath, with dances alternately graceful and vigorous framing the enchanting solos of the first violin: the magic of a sublimated and dreamed Orient.