Trios élégiaques

This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from  14 March 2014. It can be heard or downloaded from  the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/pcast147

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In programming our Friday montages in the context of Project 366, I decided that weeks where I have programmed a past montage, I will simply refresh my musing accompanying the podcast. We will issue new podcasts on Fridays where the Project has programmed a Tuesday blog or OTF share.

This is the first week since we started Project 366 and daily shares, so the first opportunity to revisit a past montage.

Two of the three works featured in this 2014 montage is a pair of trios performed by the Rachmaninoff Trio “de Montréal” – supposedly not to be confused other Rachmaninoff trios of which I found at least two others – one was formed in 1999 featuring cellist Robert Cafaro and violinist Dmitri Levinand, both members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and renowned concert pianist Luba Agranovsky. Another – featured in the video playlist nelow, is made up of pianist Eugene Feigin, violinist Tatiana Feigin and cellist  Jacek Gebczynski.

The montage originally featured the first movement of Rachmaninov’s Trio, op. 9 – his Elegiac trio – with a backward reference to a Once Upon the Internet share where we provided the performance in its entirety. As part of this week’s refresh, I included a complete performance by the Feigin/Gebczynski version of the Rachmaninoff trio, recorded in 1988 at Southeast Louisiana University.

In researching trio performances for this post, I found several recordings that pair-up the opus 9 trio with another Elegiac trio by Rachmaniinov. This work is cast in only one movement, in contrast to most piano trios, which have three or four. This movement is in the classical form of a sonata, but the exposition is built on twelve episodes that are symmetrically represented in the recapitulation. The elegiac theme is presented in the first part Lento lugubre by the piano. In the following parts, the elegy is presented by the cello and violin, while the spirit is constantly evolving (più vivo - con anima - appassionato - tempo rubato - risoluto). The theme is ultimately recast as a funeral march.

The 1988 recording featured below is one such pairing.

The remainder of the montage features the Montreal version of the Rachmaninoff trio in their debut album, for ATMA Classique in the Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich trios.

I think you will (still) love this music too.