Abbey Simon (piano)

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin

Sergey Rachmaninov's five works for piano and orchestra continue to be his most successful compositions together with his Second Symphony. Rachmaninov dedicated the Third Concerto to his lifelong friend Josef Hofmann, whom he was not alone in regarding as the greatest pianist of that time. Both the piano and the orchestral parts belong to the most demanding repertoire ever written for this genre. The composer himself cited it as his favorite. Abbey Simon was a pianist in the great Romantic tradition. His repertoire centered on Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov and Ravel, and he had a virtuoso technique which he employed with effortless ease coupled with a smooth, clear sound. Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin has received not less than six GRAMMY-awards as well as numerous other prizes and has conducted virtually all the leading orchestras in the world. The recordings of American orchestras produced for VOX by the legendary, GRAMMY-award winning Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be among the very finest sounding orchestral recordings ever made.