Lise de la salle plays rachmaninoff rhapsody

A RARELY HEARD SYMPHONY TRUMPS AN OFT-HEARD RHAPSODY

It never makes sense to me why Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 is still not in the popular orchestral repertoire. Yes, it is approximately 20 minutes shorter than his other Symphonies – No. 1 (1896) and No. 2 (1908) – containing three instead of four movements. It was also composed in 1936 after his composing played second fiddle to his decades-long stint as a popular pianist. In that time of slender output, the Russian’s work evolved into what annotator Herbert Glass calls “a leaner and meaner style from that of the sprawling, yearning pre-WWI scores on which his reputation rested.”

Thus, the No. 3 lacks those sustained Tchaikovsky-esque melodies; instead, the work opens with a “motto,” after which a theme slowly kicks in. But both motto and theme float in and out of the orchestrations and, as evidenced at Disney Hall last night with t Lise de la salle husband.