Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is widely considered to be the most difficult keyboard work of all times. That view is based on the immense technical challenge that the piano solo poses, the rhythmic complexity of the rich musical fabric, as well as the difficulty of playing together for both soloist and orchestra. Rachmaninov composed his work for his first American concert tour in the summer of 1909. It received its premiere in New York on 28 November, and in January 1910 he gave another performance of it under the baton of Gustav Mahler. The three movements of the concerto are closely linked in terms theme. The main theme of the first movement returns in the second (Intermezzo) and in the finale, which follows without interruption. This main theme is reminiscent of Russian liturgical and folk melodies, but the composer denied the similarity was conscious. Rachmaninov composed two cadenzas for the first movement; one with a more densely chordal fabric, and a lighter one. He himself always played the latter, and initially other pianists followed suite, but recently the first has become increasingly popular, too.