Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2: Romances Opp. 21 & 23, Rachmaninoff / Croise, CD

Versatile cellist Christoph Croise indulges in his passion for romantic Russian repertoire, coming together with close collaborators violinist Andrey Baranov and pianist Alexander Panfilov for a recording of works by a young Rachmaninoff. All of the works on this album were written before 1917, the year that the composer left Russia in the wake of the Revolution, and eventually emigrated to the United States. The prodigious Rachmaninoff wrote his single-movement Trio elegiaque in G minor in 1892, when he was just 18 years old. A year later, he put pen to paper to compose his second Trio elegiaque, in D minor, on the eve of the death of his friend and mentor Tchaikovsky, to whom he dedicated the work. Both trios are imbued with an air of nostalgia and melancholy that belie the composer's youthfulness. Christoph and his colleagues offer as encores a selection of songs arranged for piano trio by Alexander Panfilov: "How Fair This Spot" and "Lilacs" from Rachmaninoff's 12 Romances, Op. 21, part of a set written during his honeymoon; and "The Dream" and "Daisies" from his Op. 38 collection Six Romances (1916). The album ends appropriately with an arrangement of "Autumn Song" from Tchaikovsky's solo piano work The Seasons.