For better or worse, whenever I think of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, I can’t help but remember John Gielgud in the 1996 film “Shine.” Can it really have been 29 years ago?
Gielgud addresses Noah Taylor, as the psychologically frail Australian pianist David Helfgott, in Yoda-like bromides, cautioning him against the hazards of the “Rach 3” and shepherding him through a training sequence pitched somewhere between Dagobah and “The Mask of Zorro.” I guess this is effective shorthand for the masses, communicating the concerto’s challenges in a concise, three-minute montage that honestly has very little to do with the music.
“Shine” was showered with Oscar love in 1997 – the recipient of seven Academy Award nominations and a Best Actor trophy for Geoffrey Rush – but no amount of “pop” corn can convey the true drama of arguably Rachmaninoff’s most intense masterpiece, which can be heard on two concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra this weekend. PSO favorite Natasha Paremski will be the soloist. Rossen Milanov will conduct at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium.
The Westminster Symphonic Choir will also appear, on the program’s first half, to perform Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “Hymn to the Cherubim” from the “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom” and Johannes Brahms’ “Schicksalslied” (“Song of Destiny”).
All the shine will be in the music, tonight at 8:00 and tomorrow afternoon at 4:00. For tickets and information, visit princetonsymphony.org.
