Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor

Arensky’s First Piano Trio, composed in 1894, was dedicated to the memory of the Russian cellist, composer and teacher Karl Davydov. The muted cello melody that opens its third movement “Elegia” pays eloquent and heartfelt tribute to that deceased musician. The Trio was first performed in Moscow, and such was its enthusiastic reception that it soon gained performances around and beyond Russia—and secured Arensky first prize at the Glinka Competition in 1904. The first movement, “Allegro moderato”, opens with a sumptuously lyrical melody in the violin accompanied by rippling piano triplet chords in the piano; this melody reappears several times, most movingly at the end in a slower tempo and sounding mournful in character. A lighter atmosphere pervades the playful “Scherzo” with its sweeping waltz-like central section. In the third movement “Elegia”, the muted cello’s melody is one of profound melancholy, although a contrasting theme, played first by the piano and then by the violin, momentarily lifts the gloom with a vision of yearning and innocence. The “Finale” juxtaposes stormy and impetuous episodes with more reflective passages which recall the contrasting theme of the “Elegia” and the haunting main melody from the first movement.