KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 518, 27 May 1949, Page 26

KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

'T'HIS is one of a further series of articles written for "The Listener"

1 by

BESSIE

POLLARD

. As with the preceding series, published

some time ago, the aim is to help the student and the interested listener towards a more complete appreciation of good music.

— (21) Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50 (Tchaikovski) CHAIKOVYSKI left very few chamber works-a string sextet, three string quartets, and a piano trio-the last-named being the most popular of them all. In a letter to Madame von Meck dated January 25, 1882, he says of this work: ".... the Trio is finished .... now I can say with some conviction that my work jis not all bad. But I am afraid that having written all my life for orchestra, and only taken late in life to chamber music, I may have failed to adapt the instrumental combinations to my musical thoughts." The score is inscribed, "To the memory of a great artist’-his friend Nicholas Rubinstein-and the first performance took place at a private musicale in the Moscow Conservatory on March 2, 1882, the anniversary of Rubinstein’s death the year before. The elegiac mood of the work is felt from the very opening bars of the first movement (Pezzo Elegiaco) when the ’cello announces @ tather melancholy subject beginning-

The grandiose second subject appears in bar 61, given out in full-toned chords by the piano-

The second movement-a theme and eleven variations-is based on a subject which is said to have been sung by peasants near Moscow for Rubinstein when he and Tchaikovski were spending a happy day together, It certainly has a characteristic Russian folk-tune turn of phrase-

The violin takes over the theme in Variation 1; Variation 2 changes the time to 3/4 and the ’cello presents its version of the subject ("A" below); Variation 3 is notable for its neat chord patterns in the piano part; Variation 4 changes to the minor mode; Variation 5 has a suggestion of little bells heard from a distance, while Variation 6 ("B" below) is one of those graceful, appealing waltz movements which Tchaikovski could write so well-

/ f Variation 8 is a quick-moving fugue ("A" below); Variation 10 ("B" below) is an almost Chopinesque Mazurka- | ' }

. The movement ends with a lengthy Finale and Coda. : : Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50, by Tchaikovski, will be heard from Station 4Y¥Z Invercargill at 9.30 p.m. on Thursday, June 2.