Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 - Variations on a Theme of Corelli

Moscow-born pianist Boris Giltburg has made quite a name for himself in the big Russian piano classics. His Rachmaninoff Second was very fine and the vaunted “Rach 3” is no less impressive. He has the temperament and the technique for this mighty work and squares up to its scale and ambition with great panache. Conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto draws some high-powered yet elegant playing from the Scottish orchestra. The Corelli Variations of 1931, the composer’s last solo work, is an altogether cooler creation—less heart-on-sleeve but equally entrancing. Giltburg scales back and plays it with terrific confidence.