André Laplante - Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D Minor, Op.30 (1997)

Performing at an international competition is one of the most exhilarating moments in the life of a young pianist. There is, of course, the excitement of discovering new artistic and cultural milieus: Paris, Leeds, Geneva, Sydney, Moscow. But there is also the knowledge that the competition can be the scene of one's first triumph, as it can be the scene of one's greatest dissapointment. Always, however, it is a place where a pianist–or any other instrumentalist–learns about his or her true potential, discovers, as André Laplante says, unknown–and at times unforeseen–strengths and weaknesses.

International competitions generally follow the same pattern: first, two solo programs, in which the pianist must show a perfect command of the purely physical aspect of piano playing, as well as a complete–and imaginative–understanding of the composer's intentions; then comes the final event, where the pianist must now be able to both confront and blend with an orchestra. André Laplante's powerful, controlled and dynamic performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto had such tremendous success that a recording of it is still quite popular in Russia.

Unfortunately for the American and European public, the CBC recording was only available for a short time. On the occasion of its release on compact disc, we asked André Laplante to relive for us a few moments of the Moscow experience, from the perspective of twenty years.