A LA MÉMOIRE D'UN GRAND ARTISTE

A LA MÉMOIRE D'UN GRAND ARTISTE
Piano trios by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was urged by his patroness Nadezhda von Meck to write a piano trio. But Tchaikovsky felt great reservations about this instrumentation: He felt that the piano was only suitable as a solo instrument or for song accompaniment. The combination of the piano sound with that of the string instruments caused him physical discomfort.

On March 23, Protected content , Tchaikovsky's close friend and patron Nikolai Rubinstein, who had enabled him to teach at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, which he directed, died. Deeply saddened by this death, Tchaikovsky wrote his Trio in A minor, a work that spans 50 minutes in two huge movements, constantly oscillating between tragedy and supreme euphoria and ending with a funeral march. The result was a gigantic requiem for three instruments, a major work of its genre, as an apotheosis of sorrow as well as joy. With the dedication "À la mémoire d'un grand Artiste," Tchaikovsky set a resounding monument to Nikolai Rubinstein.

Yuliya Lebedenko, violin
Otto Laback, violoncello
Stephan Möller, piano

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