Piano Trio in A Minor

In 1881 the pianist and conductor Nikolai Rubinstein died unexpectedly, prompting his close friend Tchaikovsky to write a Piano Trio in tribute, subtitled “In Memory of a Great Artist”. Cast unconventionally in two long movements lasting 50 minutes in total, the Trio is generally considered Tchaikovsky’s finest piece of chamber music. The elegiac opening theme is introduced soulfully on cello, then briefly debated with the violin before tolling out rhetorically on the piano. This relatively subdued basic material turns out to be strongly combustible, scraps of it fuelling a fiery musical conversation between the instruments as the movement progresses. The second movement’s opening theme, a blithely folk-like melody, is announced by the piano, and there follow 12 variations possibly intended to illustrate aspects of Rubinstein’s life and personality. Highlights include the frolicking piano’s interplay with string pizzicatos in “Variation No. 3”, the tinkling imitation of a music box in “No. 5” and the teasing mazurka rhythms of “No. 10”. In the final Variation, the music hurtles toward a seemingly exuberant peroration, but memories of Rubinstein’s passing dramatically resurface. The elegiac theme of the Trio’s opening movement returns, now with greatly heightened intensity and a sense of funereal finality.