Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio [Beaux Arts Trio] What a wonderful experience this was, every single movement, every single variation was a glorious revelation today, this whole work is an intense work of genius by Tchaikovsky, there's a darkness and funeral sadness and tragedy to the thing, like a Requiem, which it was in a sense for Rubinstein, the piano is the dominant force, and the whole work is couched in the minor key.
The Beaux Arts Trio were formed in 1955, and they disbanded in 2008, the only member to have survived the whole 53 year tenure is Manahem Pressler, this recording was made in 1988, the booklet front cover is fabulous [photo by Christian Steiner], the Trio, headed by Pressler in the front, and with superb lighting from the right, and a nice darkness on the left, the lettering is very nicely laid out, i really like this cover a lot.
Well what can i say about this incredible Piano Trio?, i used to feel that Beethoven's Archduke was unsurpassable, now i really feel that there's a challenger, i loved every bit of this Trio equally today, and it'd a 45 minute long work, so where can i possibly start to even begin to explain it?, even though it's in two movements, both of these can be conveniently broken down into half also, making four defining sections, and it's this third section of the theme and eleven variations which are endlessly fascinating, Tchaikovsky seems to use every device and option to garner the ultimate variety in this music, and he uses all three of the instruments to their full potential, here's a short synopsis of three that i found especially moving,
Variation 5 - plinking piano keys, high in the treble register, with the strings in a sort of droning mode.
Variation 6 - a beautiful waltz!, truly lovely, full of swooning glides across the floor, with two extremes to it, the first very much a serenade [0:00-0:48], very sweet, and then a fiery section [0:48-1:18], stamped out louder, and these two are repeated again, and it's the second time we hear the serenade / waltz [1:18-2:04], that i hear the piano playing some rolling and bubbly piano accompaniment.
Variation 9 - Tchaikovsky called this piece Andante Flebile, flebile = feeble / weak, i can see the emphasis here, it's certainly a quieter variation, elsewhere in this Trio the piano hammers away, but here it's certainly restrained, it's also quite a strange variation, couched in mysterious mists, the piano comes in waves of ripples!, very very effective.
Here's the second part of the variations being played on YouTube, variation 9 starts at [2:40+].
