Trio Elegiaque No. 1

Program Note:

The danger for a composer who is also a brilliant pianist is that the piano tends to guide all compositional efforts. This is true both of the process—working things out primarily at the keyboard—as well as the finished product. Chamber works with include piano can easily be overrun by the keyboard part. Full credit to Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) for largely avoiding that pitfall. He did not compose many chamber works, but what exists (a cello sonata and two piano trios) manages an effective balance between piano and strings. The two trios, both named Trio élégiaque, are very different works. The second, written as a memorial to Tchaikovsky in 1893, is massive, nearly fifty minutes long in most performances, and takes formal guidance from Tchaikovsky’s own A-minor Piano Trio. The Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor is more modest in scope. It dates from Rachmaninoff’s final months at the Moscow Conservatory. He included the Trio along with a dozen solo piano works by 19th-century virtuosi on his first public concert, set for January 30, 1892.
This Trio contains a single, expansive movement that merges principles of sonata form and variation technique. The exposition proceeds through various melodically related sections. An interesting strategy finds the development starting in the key of the subdominant (C minor), rather than the expected dominant or median key. From the start, Rachmaninoff’s distinctive voice comes through: dolorous, rich harmonies given a touch of modal exoticism; writing that is assured and earnest, albeit limited to a fair amount of repetition; texturally rich and sensitive to the best qualities of the various instruments. The Trio does not make any pretense to be more than it is, and the achievement is quite remarkable for a nineteen-year-old Conservatory student. In any case, he would not have produced such a monumental second Trio élégiaque without this trial run.

(c) Jason Stell