Catalogue

Summary:

“there’s much to admire in the tonal beauty and variety in the strings … with the players blending effortlessly, and keeping the emotional tension at a high level throughout … shows off some delicious portamentos in the strings … Panfilov shines” ★★★★★ – BBC Music Magazine

“Pianist Alexandre Panfilov, violinist Andrey Baranov and cellist Christoph Croisé unite their sensibilities for the benefit of a Rachmaninov program imbued with the composer’s melancholic soul” – ResMusica

Scala Radio, Album of the Week

“First-rate performances … the three players complementing each other skillfully and each buoying the sound of the other two … The sensitivity of all the performances on this disc is considerable, the playing is very fine throughout, and the emotional connections of the music come through strongly and effectively” – Infodad

Versatile cellist Christoph Croisé 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 élégiaque 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 élégiaque, 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.

Tracklist:

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)

1. Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor

Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 9
2. I. Moderato-Allegro vivace
3. II. Quasi variazione. Andante
4. III. Allegro risoluto-Moderato

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF; arr. Alexander Panfilov
5. 12 Romances, Op. 21 No. 7, How Fair this Spot
6. 6 Romances, Op. 38 No. 5, The Dream
7. 6 Romances, Op. 38 No. 3, Daisies
8. 12 Romances, Op. 21 No. 5, Lilacs

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893); arr. Louis Eaton
The Seasons, Op. 37a
9. No. 10, Autumn Song