“I simply cannot endure the combination of piano with violin or cello… it is torture for me.” So wrote Tchaikovsky in 1880 to his friend and patron Nadezhda von Meck. Yet a little over a year later the Russian composer had embarked on just such an endeavor, spurred to the feat by the death of his mentor, pianist Nikolai Rubinstein. Rubinstein notoriously condemned his protege’s first piano concerto, and it seems appropriate that the man who grilled a young Tchaikovsky should be the dedicatee of his only experiment into the trio form, set in the key of A minor.
// The Erato Piano Trio will be performing the work with other pieces for piano, violin and cello by Mozart and Haydn. Aug 10, 7.30pm, RMB40-80. Daning Theatre, 1222 Pingxingguan Lu, by Lingshi Lu 平型关路1222号, 近灵石路 (3636 8807, www.daningtheatre.com.cn)
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