Tchaikovsky & Rachmaninoff

Trio Solisti was recently called “the most exciting trio in America” by The New Yorker, and on these recordings gives ample evidence for the encomium. Tchaikovsky's only piano trio was written in the shadow of Nikolai Rubenstein's death. Rubenstein was the founder of the Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky's close friend. Tchaikovsky composed the formidable piano part as a tribute, and dedicated the score Á la mémoire d'un grand artiste. Following Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, Rachmaninoff set out to memorialize the great master through his own Trio élégiaque, eventually published as op. 9, and bearing the same dedication as Tchaikovsky's trio. Rachmaninoff's single-movement G minor trio was written two years before his D minor trio, though it was not published until 1947, a few years after his death.