Search - Saint-Saens, Rubinstein :: Piano Concerto 2

Here's one of Rubinstein's finest collections. He was the sovereign master of these pieces, though all three seem to have lost some measure of their popularity in recent days. The reason is simple: none of them are particularly difficult to play, so virtuosos get bored playing them. The Falla, aside from being one of the most purely beautiful works in the history of the universe, commits the one unforgivable sin of concertdom: it ends quietly. But real musicians, like Rubinstein, always know that great music and technical difficulty are not the same, and that the best music always repays all the attention that a great artist lavishes on it. This is certainly some of the best music. --David Hurwitz