The concert will take place on Saturday, October 7.
Internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Talon Smith will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, on October 7, 2023, at the BroadStage in Santa Monica, CA.
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 has the reputation of being one of the most technically and musically challenging concertos in the piano repertoire. Owing to its difficulty, the concerto is respected, even feared, by many pianists. Josef Hofmann, the pianist to whom the work was dedicated, never publicly performed it, saying that it “wasn’t for” him. Gary Graffman lamented that he had not learned this concerto as a student when he was “still too young to know fear.”
In 1927, Vladimir Horowitz performed the concerto for Rachmaninoff in New York and received his feedback. Horowitz’s 1930 studio recording of the concerto brought immense popularity to the composition around the world. Today, the composition is seen by many as the pinnacle of Rachmaninoff’s career as a composer.
Los Angeles area classical music enthusiasts are encouraged to get their tickets fast for a sensational performance of Rachmaninoff’s epic Piano Concerto No. 3 by the extraordinarily gifted pianist Talon Smith—it is anticipated to be a sellout concert!
Talon Smith is a 21-year-old virtuoso pianist and composer who inspires audiences with his emotionally moving, intensely poetic, impeccably colored, and technically stunning performances. Talon won his first international competition at age 14. From there, his career has continued to soar with an abundance of triumphant achievements.
On August 22, 2023, SF Classical Voice announced that Talon Smith had won four audience choice awards: “A runaway winner here, as the young pianist’s supporters came out in droves to vote for his February recital in Santa Monica, where he performed his 24 Preludes, Op. 1, just published in January. That program also takes gold in the Best New Music Performance and Best Instrumental Recital categories, and the composition itself scores as Best New Discovery.”
On February 18, 2023, Truman Wang of Classical Voice wrote, “The program saw Mr. Smith playing works by Chopin (G-minor Ballade), Stravinsky (Op.7 Etudes) and Ravel’s fiendishly difficult Gaspard de la nuit. Once again, the young virtuoso placed his technical mastery at the service of poetry and the singing line. Vladimir Horowitz famously said ‘There is no shortage of pianists, only a shortage of composers.’ In the new 24 Preludes by Talon Smith (Op.1) – an astonishing collection of pieces with varying styles and emotions – one had a renewed hope for the future of new music, music that speaks to the hearts of the common men and women unencumbered by the demands of academia.”
Talon is a “two thumbs up” Gramophone favorite, winning their highest praises—they described Talon as a “master pianist with an old soul…lifting the music…into the opera house, as if there were a great orchestra in tow” and “evoking memories of Josef Hoffman’s 1937 legendary Golden Jubilee performance.”
The October 7, 2023, concert will also include the cheery, pastoral Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, by Johannes Brahms. The symphony will radiate energy and optimism from start to finish under the baton of Maestro Kahn conducting the Vicente Chamber Orchestra.
Come and experience a sensational performance of these two iconic classical music works by Rachmaninoff and Brahms. Get your tickets at TalonSmithMusic.com
