Trio Testore - Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky: Piano Trios (2014/2019) [Hi-Res]

After a successful release of Brahms Piano Trios, Audite present a second recording with the Trio Testore. It sheds light on a moving concept in Russian chamber music as both Tchaikovsky‘s and Rachmaninov‘s works are conceived as dedications and memorials.

Tchaikovsky composed his only Piano Trio in memory of Nikolai Rubinstein, his mentor and friend. He paid tribute to Rubinstein’s pianistic brilliance with the work’s demanding piano part, but integrated it also into the communicative context with two equal partners: symbolically, the virtuoso receives support and stimulation from them. Rachmaninov took this two-movement work and its fundamentally elegiac character as a model when he composed his First Piano Trio. Even at the tender age of 17 he was able to mould essential elements of his style and melodic invention. The history of the dedications of the works determines their individual form and their personal, passionate message.

"Trio Testore tackle the earlier of the Rachmaninov trios, cast in a single movement, with a mix of tenderness and raw emotion; it is not a masterwork; but with the sensibility that these players reveal, it comes across with touching sincerity." (Gramophone Magazine)

Trio Testore:
Franziska Pietsch, violin
Hans-Christian Schweiker, cello
Hyun-Jung Kim-Schweiker, piano