Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Arno Babajanian - Piano Trios (Gluzman; Moser; Sudbin)

Information

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Arno Babajanian; Alfred Schnittke

• Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50
• Babajanian - Piano Trio in F sharp minor
• Schnittke - Tango from the opera 'Life with an Idiot' (arr. Yevgeny Sudbin)

Vadim Gluzman, violin

Johannes Moser, cello

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

Date: 2019

Label: BIS

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Review

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio is, by any standards, one of the peaks of the repertoire; given the difficulties balancing the three instruments, one of the most demanding, too. Its enormous length – Sudbin, Gluzman and Moser come in at 48'20" here – provides an additional challenge, as Tchaikovsky’s complex structure is a diptych where the finale (12 variations and coda on a folk song) divides into distinct groups either side of a central fugue (Var 8), the 12th expanded to form a weighty conclusion. Some high-profile predecessors on disc (not least the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Borodin in 1981) made cuts, even omitting whole variations.

Tchaikovsky disliked the trio as a genre but choosing it for his memorial to Nikolay Rubinstein solved his need for a work of major heft yet intimate reflection. What I like about this beautifully (if slightly distantly) recorded newcomer is the way both elements are reconciled so convincingly. Throughout the first movement, Pezzo elegiaco, the three players sound in complete accord. Moser’s cello may lead the way initially but it is Sudbin who binds the whole together, conveying the powerful piano part without overwhelming his colleagues. This pinpoint balance repeats throughout the second movement, whether in the waltz and mazurka (Vars 6 and 9) or the hushed Moderato (Var 11). It is a trio masterclass.

What to couple it with? Rubinstein piano pieces (the Fujita Trio), Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque (the Gould), Arensky (Trio Wanderer) or, as the Borodin did in 1990, Alyabiev’s, also in A minor? Here we have Arno Babajanian’s bracing, folk-inflected Trio with its heart-stopping central Andante. This newcomer is as competitive as any of its dozen rivals, full of fire like the Lincoln’s. There’s swing and subtlety in the encore, Sudbin’s arrangement of Schnittke’s Tango, composed for the film Agony (1974) but reused in the opera Life with an Idiot (1992). Recommended.

— Guy Rickards

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Arno Babajanian (January 22, 1921 – November 11, 1983) was a Soviet and Armenian composer and pianist. He studied at the Yerevan Conservatory and the Moscow Conservatory. From 1950 to 1956 he taught at the Yerevan Conservatory. In 1952, he wrote his Piano Trio, which received immediate acclaim and was regarded as a masterpiece from the time of its premiere. Subsequently, he undertook concert tours throughout the Soviet Union and Europe. Babajanian wrote in various musical genres, including many popular songs in collaboration with leading poets. Much of his music is rooted in Armenian folk music and folklore.

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