AUSTIN, Texas — She's considered one of the best classical music pianists in the world: Olga Kern, born in Russia, now living in the U.S. and at home on concert stages across the globe.
On Sept. 22 and 23 at 8 p.m. at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Kern will be performing with the Austin Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Peter Bay.
But it's not going to be a traditional concert.
Over the span of two evenings, Kern will be performing all five of the concerti for piano and orchestra written by celebrated composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Usually, a guest artist appearing with a symphony orchestra performs one, or at most two, pieces for piano and orchestra and performs the same music compositions on consecutive nights.
Kern will instead play a different program each night. Perhaps even more remarkably, she is performing all five of the Rachmaninoff pieces for solo piano and orchestra: his piano concertos No. 1 through 4 and the beloved "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," considered by many to also be a concerto.
“It is a lot of work, or course, especially to perform five pieces like these big, monumental pieces on such a short period of time,” Kern said. “But that's my profession, and I love it. So, it’s always a pleasure to perform Rachmaninoff.”
Each concerto is from 25 to 45 minutes in length, and they will be performed by Kern from memory without music score on the piano. That means remembering thousands of musical notes and pages and pages of music: a challenge that few pianists would dare attempt in two consecutive concerts.
The Austin Symphony Orchestra said tickets are still available for the Friday and Saturday night concerts and are available to purchase online at austinsymphony.org.