The Heifetz Collection, Volume 36 - Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn

'He stood as if cut in marble, but I had to stop watching his perfect coordination and listen with my eyes closed to the unearthly beautiful I I sound of his violin." This is how Gregor Piatigorsky recalls his first A. A Heifetz concert in pre-World War II Berlin in his entertaining 1965 memoir Cellist. "Our relationship as friends and our activity together as musicians spread over the past 35 years has a significance deserving of a voluminous account... We have recorded over 30 works together... We have spent uncounted hours playing chamber music, Ping-Pong and gin rummy ... And, at one time, with Artur Rubinstein, we held the dubious title 'The Million Dollar Trio,' bestowed upon us by Life magazine after our series of concerts in Ravinia. " In August 1950 that fabulous trio made their only recordings: the two works heard here and the Ravel trio. Except, perhaps, for the prominence of their piano writing, the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky trios have little in common. Mendelssohn embraced the piano trio with as much naturalness as he did all other forms of music except opera; Tchaikovsky came to all chamber music reluctantly and had voiced early on a special aversion to the piano trio. When he finally composed his 0p.50, it was to honor the memory of Nicholas Rubinstein, his former teacher and longtime friend. A brooding and melancholy man, Tchaikovsky tinged his trio with sadness, an emotion Mendelssohn rarely expressed—and certainly not in his Trio in D Minor. By 1839, when Mendelssohn completed this, the first of his two piano trios, he had already composed five string quartets and a variety of chamber works combining piano and strings. Its success was immediate: Robert Schumann placed it on the level of Beethoven's and Schubert's best works in the genre. The popularity of Op.49 has never abated; its wealth of melodies and consummate craftsmanship continue to hold their appeal. The opening theme of the first movement takes instant hold of the listener with its agitato ethos, while the second movement has been aptly likened to one of the composer's Songs Without Words. The brief Scherzo dispenses with a trio section and moves with the gossamer delicacy virtually patented by Mendelssohn. The surging momentum of the final movement is sustained through three principal themes, the last of which—a cantabile melody introduced by the cello—briefly adds an element of solemnity. The second theme, on the other hand, must have haunted Leoncavallo in his academic years, as its appearance in the Nedda-Silvio duet in Pagliacci bears witness. Tchaikovsky's only piano trio was first performed at a private gathering on March 2,1882, the first anniversary of the death of Nicholas Rubinstein, by three of the latter's colleagues. The work is cast in two lengthy movements. The first, in a modified sonata form, is developed through the intertwining of three richly melodious themes. The piano is quite prominent throughout, but it is the second movement that pays special tribute to Nicholas's virtuosity, memorably rendered in this recording by his unrelated namesake. It is the piano that states the simple folklike theme, which is followed by 11 diverse and elaborate variations. There is a scherzando episode for piano with pizzicato strings (No.3), and a "music box" episode where the piano gently tinkles (No.5) before taking a more dominant role in a sweeping waltz (No.6). A grandioso treatment in Tchaikovsky's balletic manner (No.7) is followed by an academic-sounding fugue (No.8), suggesting that both composer and dedicatee were professors, and a lively mazurka (No. 10) with elaborate piano figurations. The conclusion of the work recalls its opening theme with great intensity before ebbing away in the strings as the piano gently intones a funeral march. When Tchaikovsky died, in 1893, this trio was played at memorial concerts in Moscow and in St. Petersburg. —George Jellinek