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time and work will be required for its new Version, and whether it’s worth doing anyway.' Intensive work on the revision of the Concerto did not however start until the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, when Rachmaninov was in Moscow. He later described this time: ‘I had started to rewrite my First Piano Concerto... I was so engrossed with my work that I did not notice what went on around me... I sat at the writing fable or the piano all day, without troubling about the rattle of machine guns and rifle shots.’ As the Revolution progressed Rachmaninov realised that life in Russia was changing beyond recognition. He was offered a series of concerts in Scandinavia in November 1917 and decided to leave Russia with his family, for what in fact was to be for ever. From Scandinavia he travelled to America, and in urgent need of funds, he considered re-launching his career there either as a conductor or as a pianist. On the advice of Josef Hofmann he chose the latter, and was to be one of the world’s finest concert pianists for the rest of his life, until his death in Hollywood in 1943. The First Piano Concerto, in its now revised form, was first performed soon after his arrival in America, on 28 January 1919 in New York, with Rachmaninov as soloist and Modeste Altschuler conducting the Russian Symphony Orchestra. Rachmaninov was very pleased with his revision of the Concerto, commenting, '...it is really good now. AU the youthful freshness is there, and yet it plays itself so much more easily.’ He had tightened the construction of the work, and had given the Orchestration, over which he had originally hurried, greater clarity. The first movement opens with an arresting brass fanfare, followed by a rapid solo passage of descending octaves and weighty chords from the piano, indicating the influence of Tchaikovsky, who had supported Rachmaninov as a young composer. The orchestra then introduces the first theme, which is taken up by the soloist. There is a second theme, marked meno mosso, and the opening plays a part in the working out of the thematic material, notably in the extended cadenza for the solo piano. The slow movement has been compared to a Chopin Nocturne. It is quite short and the piano enters almost at once, with an expressive melody, which is developed with increasingly elaborate and complex figuration. The final movement opens in 9/8 time: this is contradicted in the second bar by the piano’s quadruple-time 12/8. The pattem of contrasting metres continues, before the excitement of the opening gives way to a more tranquil central section in E flat that is marked Andante ma non troppo. The original mood and key of F Sharp major are gradually restored as the Concerto moves towards its final optimistic conclusion. interval Ludwig van Beethoven «770-1827) Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Eroicä), Op. 55 Allegro con brio Marcia funebre (Adagio assai) Scherzo (Allegro vivace) Finale (Allegro molto) Beethoven’s notebooks indicate that work on the Eroica Symphony commenced in 1803. It was completed in May of the following year, and first performed privately at the house of Prince Lobkowitz. The first public performance took place a year later, on 7 April 1805, at the Theater an der Wien, in one of Franz Clement's concerts, with Beethoven himself conducting. It was for Clement that Beethoven was to compose the Violin Concerto Op. 61 in 1806. The orchestral parts only of the Symphony were published in Vienna in 1806, as was then the custom. The full score was eventually published by Simrock in 1820. Ries, Beethoven’s Contemporary, suggested that the Symphony was inspired by Beethoven’s admiration of Napoleon Bonaparte as the First Consul of France, in whom he initially saw the Champion of Liberty, equal to the great consuls of Ancient Rome. However when Beethoven learned that Napoleon had proclaimed