Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943) wrote his third Piano Concerto in 1909 at the Ivanovka country estate 550 kilometres south-east of Moscow. Rachmaninoff spent the summer months here from 1890 until his emigration to the US in 1917. The three movements of the piece recall the structure of typical solo concerts of the Romantic era. Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 was premiered by the New York Symphony Orchestra on November 28, 1909 in New York, conducted by Walter Damrosch. Rachmaninoff, who had been practicing the concert on a silent piano during his Atlantic voyage, played the solo part himself.
As a child, pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, born in 1987 in Tblisi, Georgia, was considered a wunderkind. She began to play the piano at the age of three and gave her first concert with the Tblisi concert orchestra at the age of six. International performances followed when she was ten. In 2008, she gave her US debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Since then, Buniatishvili has been regularly invited to many high-profile festivals and has given concerts in the world’s most renowned concert halls, for instance at Vienna’s Musikverein, at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and at the Berlin Philharmonic. She has won the highly respected Echo Classic Award twice.
The Verbier Festival is one of the most prestigious classical music events in the world. The quality of the participating artists as well as the originality of the programs have established the festival as a highlight of the music season. It takes place for two weeks in late July and early August in the mountain resort of Verbier, in Switzerland.
