Presents
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Piano Trio in a minor, Op.50
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is one of the most famous composers who ever lived and as such needs no introduction. However, chamber music is scarcely the first, second or even third musical genre with which he is associated. But, like most of the major composers of the 19th century, he made substantial contributions to the chamber music repertoire. Unfortunately, most of it, with the exception of the famous Andante cantabile, the second movement from his First String Quartet, is unknown and rarely if ever performed in concert. This is a shame, because it is of a very high caliber and surely deserves to be better known.
The Piano Trio was composed at the end of 1881 and the beginning of 1882 while he was sojourning in Rome. This is the only piano trio Tchaikovsky ever wrote. When his patron and financial supporter Nadezhda von Meck had asked him for a piano trio the year before, he refused her writing that he could not stand the combination of those three instruments which he felt did not blend well at all, especially because of the piano. Yet, the next year he composed this trio without being asked to do so, puzzling in a way since he could have chosen any number of formats, such as the string quartet, which he had used once before as a tribute to his friend the violinist Ferdinand Laub. The trio is subtitle 'In memory of a great artist,' that being his close friend and mentor Nikolai Rubinstein, a famous pianist, conductor and director of the Moscow Conservatory who had hired Tchaikovsky to teach there and who had championed and premiered many of his works. Rubinstein had died in March of 1881. It is in two big movements, and is characterized by a brooding, tragic aura. The first movement, Pezzo elegiaco, allegro moderato assai, is dark and melancholy, beginning with a cello solo stating the main theme which is heard at the end again in the form of a funeral march. The lengthy second movement, Tema con variazioni, features 12 contrasting variations and a coda. It bears a resemblance in style to his Rocco Variations for Cello and Orchestra which he had composed some four years earlier. This powerful work which belongs in the first rank of piano trios.
Parts: $34.95
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