Listening to the Russian musical treasures we will hardly be able
to miss out on a bunch of excellent musical dedications to this or that
outstanding composer or player. The very best of these dedications come
in the form of trios.
February 20 of 1894 was the last day in the life of the outstanding composer,
pianist and conductor Anton Rubinstein. One of Russia’s greatest pianists
and the founding father of this country’s school of piano playing, Anton
Rubinstein was also the first Russian player of classic European symphonies.
He was also a very productive composer making himself famous in virtually
all existing musical genres.
The founder of the Russian Philharmonic Society and Russia’s first conservatory,
Anton Rubinstein was widely admired as a man of many talents, including
by the famous pianist and composer Pavel Pabst who wrote a Trio for piano,
violin and cello on the occasion of Rubinstein’s death…
Piano featured very prominently here and with pretty good reason too since
it was the instrument of choice for Rubinstein whose pianistic skills were
on a par with those of the great Ferenz Liszt. Writing a trio in
the memory of such a brilliant pianist, Pavel Pabst threw in a lot of flashy
lines…
Pabst was apparently inspired by a Trio in the Memory of a Great Artist
written 13 years before by the great Pyotr Tchaikovsky on the occasion
of the death of Anton Rubinstein’s younger brother, Nikolai. Just like
his elder brother, Nikolai was a prominent pianist, conductor and public
figure, but, unfortunately, he is much less known in the West.
Just as Anton Rubinstein ruled supreme in the musical world of St.Petersburg,
Nikolai was number one in Moscow. In 1864 Nikolai Rubinstein invited his
brother’s best student, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, to teach in the Conservatory
he had just opened in Moscow. To spare the young professor renting expenses,
Rubinstein allowed him to live in his own apartment. For the next few years
Tchaikovsky enjoyed the company of Rubinstein’s noisy, joyful and very
closely-knit family…
Before long, Nikolai Rubinstein and Pyotr Tchaikovsky became good friends.
Nikolai never missed a chance to help his young friend and became the first
player of music written by the would-be classic. Tchaikovsky was forever
grateful to Rubinstein and was literally devastated by his sudden demise…
Following Tchaikovsky’s lead, Sergei Rakhmaninoff wrote a Memorial Trio
on the occasion of Tchaikovsky’s own death that came a few years later…
Rakhmaninoff and Tchaikovsky first met in the Moscow Conservatory. Already
an acclaimed maestro, Tchaikovsky would occasionally come to visit his
conservatory friend, Professor Nikolai Zverev the young Rakhmaninoff then
studied and lived with. Rakhmaninoff was stunned by Tchaikovsky’s kindness
and refined manners…
Tchaikovsky, for his part, was very much impressed by the one of a kind
talent and originality displayed by the budding composer. Presiding over
the Conservatory’s examination board, Tchaikovsky gave Rakhmaninoff a sound
A – plus for his graduation opera “Aleko” and later helped to produce it
on stage.
Small wonder that Tchaikovsky was so shattered by the news Tchaikovsky’s
death. The following day he was already writing a memorial trio which,
by analogy with his idol’s piece, he called a Trio in the Memory of a Great
Artist.
Some fifty years later, in the 1940s, Rakhmaninoff’s friend and conservatory
classmate Alexander Goldenveizer dedicated a Memorial Trio to one of the
greatest composer Russia ever had…
Alexander Goldenveizer is remembered above all as an outstanding pianist
and teacher. He had learned much from Pavel Pabst and was an acclaimed
interpreter of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Besides, during his 60-year
professorship at the Moscow Conservatory, Goldenveizer trained nearly 200
pianists.
Simultaneously, Goldenveizer kept writing music, one of his best works
being a Trio he dedicated to Sergei Rakhmaninoff who had died in America,
thousands of miles away from his native land…
Almost simultaneously with Goldenveizer’s Trio Dmitry Shostakovich came
up with a similar work dedicated to the memory of his good friend Ivan
Sollertinsky.
Sollertinsky was a perfectly educated man, a Russian polymath and an expert
in theater, literature and languages. He was a professor at the Leningrad
Conservatory as well as artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic.
In these capacities Sollertinsky was an active promoter of music by his
close friend Dmitry Shostakovich.
During the war again Nazi Germany of 1941-1945 Ivan Sollertinsky moved
to Siberia along with the Philharmonic. In 1944 he went down with pneumonia
and died shortly after. Shattered by the tragic news, Shostakovich wrote
a Memorial Trio which is one of best chamber pieces he ever wrote…
06/22/05
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