SEASON 3 EPISODE 10
ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
Good afternoon and thanks for tuning in to Little Rock Public Radio and Classical KLRE-FM, 90.5. I'm Eric Harrison, I write about arts and culture at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and I’ll be your host for the next two hours.
You're listening to ‘Major and Minor Masterpieces,’ where we focus each week on a broad range of classical music, from chamber music to choral works to full symphonies and maybe even a touch or two of opera.
Today’s theme is “Three’s Company” — trios for violin, cello and piano with major status in the chamber music repertoire.
Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wasn’t fond of the piano trio — in fact, in 1880, he told his patron, Nadezhda von Meck that he considered the combination of instruments “unnatural.”
A little over a year later, however, it appears he changed his mind. He had, in fact, started work on just such a trio commemorating his teacher Nikolai Rubinstein, who had recently died at the age of 41.
Tchaikovsky’s op.50 Piano Trio in a minor is in two movements. It is one of the most massive trios, in terms of length, in the repertoire.
Let’s hear the trio, performed by Cho-LIang Lin, violin; Gary Hoffman, cello; and Yefim Bronfman, piano.
(PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY’S “PIANO TRIO” OP. 50)
Violinist Cho-LIang Lin, cellist Gary Hoffman and pianist Yefim Bronfman have performed Tchaikovsky’s op. 50 Piano Trio on a 1994 Sony Classical recording here on Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and classical KLRE FM 90.5.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
—PROGRAM BREAK—
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
Probably the best known is his last, the 1811 Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, known as the “Archduke Trio” because of its dedication to Archduke Rudolph of Austria.
Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello; and Emanuel Ax, piano, perform it as part of Sony Classical’s “Beethoven for Three” project.
(LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S “ARCHDUKE TRIO”)
Violinist Leonidas Kavakos, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax performed.
Felix Mendelssohn wrote two piano trios, both masterpieces of the genre.
Composer and music journalist Robert Schumann praised the first trio, in d minor, op.49, as “the master trio of our age.”
Let’s hear the all-star lineup of Joshua Bell, violin; Steven Isserlis, cello; and Jeremy Denk, piano, play the trio on this recent Sony Classical recording.
(FELIX MENDELSSOHN’S “PIANO TRIO” NO. 1)
Violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Jeremy Denk have performed Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 on this edition of Major and Minor Masterpieces.
Thanks for tuning in this week. I've been your host, Eric Harrison, of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Our producer is Sarah Buford. And our transition and credit music is by our friend Wojciech Chiselinski.
Tune in again next week for Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.