St. Mary’s College of Maryland pianists Brian Ganz and Beverly Babcock will join forces to present one of the most exciting works in the piano concerto repertoire, Sergei Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major.” The concert will take place on Thursday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. in the college’s Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary’s Hall. It is free and open to the public.
“Prokofiev’s ‘Piano Concerto No. 3’ is an absolutely thrilling work to play and to listen to,” Ganz said. “It whips the performers and the audience into a kind of frenzy of excitement. It also has a very lovely lyrical side as well—it is a deeply satisfying work.”
The Prokofiev concerto will form the entire program with commentaries from Ganz and examples at the keyboard from both Ganz and Babcock. Babcock will play the orchestra part arranged by the composer for a second piano, which is “in many ways harder than the soloist’s,” said Ganz. “It’s almost a concerto for orchestra and piano rather than the other way around.”