A classic pairing: two masterpieces of Russian chamber music in a new recording by three distinguished interpreters of Romantic-era repertoire.

It was writing for this combination of instruments in the unlikely context of the slow movement of his Second Piano Concerto that seems finally to have convinced Tchaikovsky he could turn to the genre of piano trio proper and overcome his previous antipathy to it. In fact, following the death of the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein in March 1881, the Piano Trio was composed within less than a year, and with unusual fluency.

Its unconventional format – a sonata-form movement followed by an extended theme and variations – takes as its model Beethoven’s final sonata Op.111. The emotional intensity of the first movement is dispelled by the lighter mood of the second, which may represent personal memories of Rubinstein, including visiting an amusement park and attending a ball, and the charmingly lopsided theme is apparently based on a folk melody he had heard in Rubinstein’s company.