Like both Anton Rubinstein and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff remained true to his early lessons in traditional forms and customs of music theory and composition. Studying and admiring the music of the great (largely Germanic) composers, they structured their own works upon those models, with ever-increasing attention to the more adventuresome harmonies and melodic flow that characterized their own age.
Rachmaninoff in particular infused his works with sweeping melodies and rich harmonies that came from the depths of his heart. In life, although Tchaikovsky was older than Rachmaninoff by 33 years, they were kindred musical spirits in many ways. Beginning in Rachmaninoff’s youth, they became acquainted, an association that grew into a mutual respect between mentor and student, and later in Tchaikovsky’s life, love and admiration for one another.
With his mentor’s sudden death, the 20-year-old Rachmaninoff descended into profound depression. Within six weeks he had completed his second piano trio, this one entitled, Trio Élégiaque, with a dedication, “To the memory of a great artist,” by whom Rachmaninoff meant Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Twelve years earlier, Tchaikovsky had also, in similar circumstances, composed a three-movement memorial to one of his heroes, Anton Rubinstein’s younger brother, Nikolai, the founding director of the Moscow Conservatory. Hearing of Nikolai’s sudden passing (heart attack) in 1881, Tchaikovsky had responded with the creation of his Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50, “To the memory of a great artist.” Emulating that expression of profound sadness, Rachmaninoff chose to adapt the form, style, title and dedicatory phrase of Tchaikovsky’s tribute to Nikolai Rubinstein as the vessel into which to pour his grief over the death of Tchaikovsky.
Rachmaninoff’s Trio Élégiaque is cast in three movements—the outer two in D minor, and the middle movement in the relative key of F Major. In the first movement, a theme appears that will thread through the entire work.
The second movement’s main theme and eight variations are built upon the main theme of Rachmaninoff’s recently completed orchestral tone poem, The Rock. The composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov recalled that following its first performance, Tchaikovsky had expressed to the 20-year-old composer his appreciation of the new work: “The poem pleased everyone very much, especially Pyotr Ilyich, who was enthusiastic over its colorfulness...his former good-hearted mood came back to him.” A few weeks later, Tchaikovsky died, and Rachmaninoff extracted that orchestral theme for a central role in his tribute to his mentor.
In the third movement, Rachmaninoff unleashes the piano. It is a dramatic, passionate final statement of his grief. Rachmaninoff himself was the pianist in the Trio’s first performance, which took place in Moscow on January 31, 1894.
— Program notes by Sandra Hyslop