Rimsky Korsakov: Piano Trio in C minor

This project focuses on the work of Mitrofan Belyayev – a Russian publisher who helped to bring works by Russian composers to the attention of the world.

This disc includes works by Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov and Blumenfeld.

An original coupling of quasi-contemporary Russian chamber works, contrasting a master with one of his former students and an admirer of Tchaikovsky: or, in other words, the nationalists with the cosmopolitan new generation. Both trios, in minor mode, lie within the splendour of a waning Romanticism in which the keyboard is king, with a nod to Brahms from the composer of ‘Scheherazade’, the Slavic lyric tradition for Arensky.

A selection from the 10-CD set issued on Brilliant Classics, featuring one of the most remarkable piano trios in history: the Oistrakh Trio, with David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and Lev Oborin. Three Russian souls pour out their hearts in these piano trios by Russian composers, the great Tchaikovsky trio and other masterworks in the genre:Taneyev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Glinka and Shebalin. The 10CD set of the Oistrakh Trio received a prestigious Diapason d’Or in France (BC9101). Spanning three CDs and providing hours of fascinating listening, this compilation surveys an important facet of the Russian school through detailing one of the lesserknown areas of its output: piano trios. The compilation begins with Tchaikovsky’s famous A minor Trio Op.50, a work that effectively initiated the in memoriam trio and which pays homage to the late death of the composer’s friend Rubinstein through its virtuoso pianism.

From Glinka’s offering, a terse and cyclic piece that draws on the Italian cantilena and displays elements of the Weberesque leitmotif, to Rimsky- Korsakov’s C minor Trio – a rarity among the composer’s mature works – the set also details Taneyev’s symphonically-scaled Trio in D Op.22, modelled on Tchaikovsky’s work and which recalls elements of the master’s style through its use of eleven variations. Rachmaninoff's Trio élégiaque No.2 follows, written in response to the death of Tchaikovsky, and Shebalin’s work, composed 1907, completes the set. All of these works are performed the acclaimed Oistrakh trio, which for nearly a quarter of a century was the elite ensemble of its kind in the USSR.

Though the recordings were made during 1948–57, the raw energy and authority of the group’s playing remain as strong as ever: a valuable set that comprises a worthy addition to the historic collector’s and piano aficionado’s library.

This 3‐disc collection showcases Russian piano trios from the mid‐nineteenth to early‐twentieth centuries. Piano trios were unheard of for Russian composers until Mikhail Glinka wrote one in 1832; it earned the epithet ‘Pathétique’ as it seemed to be a reflection of Glinka’s general sadness at the time of writing, the piece alternating between caustic tension and attempts at light‐hearted optimism.

A mournful, melancholic influence then became characteristic of the Russian piano trio: Tchaikovsky unknowingly created a tradition when he composed his offering in 1882 – one of his greatest chamber works and which he dedicated to his recently deceased and much‐missed friend Nikolay Rubinstein. On several subsequent occasions, piano trios were written as memorials. The collection also includes the mathematically‐governed trio of Sergey Taneyev, who had gained a reputation as a cerebral composer, and the trio of Rimsky‐ Korsakov, whose mastery of opera and vocal writing can be seen in the final movement as each instrument takes on its own ‘voice’ and emotion – thus resembling an interaction between characters. Alexander Borodin used the Classical model for his trio, although it contains surprising chromaticism as well as dramatic changes of temperament, including the tragic hymn in the second movement. Anton Arensky’s take on the genre completes the collection. The Moscow Piano Trio was formed in 1976 and has achieved huge success in international competitions, notably winning the Maurice Ravel Gold Medal at the Bordeaux ‘Mai Musical’. The trio is comprised of pianist Alexander Bonduriansky, violinist Vladimir Ivanov and cellist Mikhail Utkin.