Recollection of the piano trio in A minor OP50 by Tchaikovsky

In the end of each year, we, the members of the university orchestra club, have had a year end party at the campus of Ochanomizu Women's University. The orchestra was an intercollege club between our university and that one. At the student hall  after a rehearsal, there were some cookies with soft drinks ready on each table. It was early in the evening and pretty cold. Through the front window, we could see the shadow of trees and faculty buildings in the darkness. Very quiet. Some members would go up on the stage one after another to play pieces they like and had prepared for this event.

In a year or two after I had started learning cello at the orchestra, a senior student, a proficient cellist by that time, together with a pianist and a violinist, was playing the piece, "To the Memory of the Great Artist", the famous piano trio by Tchaikovsky there. For a beginner cellist, I was more than moved by their performance.

In the darkness of twilight, beginning with the arpeggio, the piano lured the cello to start singing the melancholic beautiful theme. They have played only the 1st movement and the coda of the 2nd movement. They still caught my mind so tightly. From the last variation to the coda, what a magnificient as well as touching transition, the first theme was reproduced and faded as a funeral march.

This trio is not a permanent ensemble but seems to have been gathered for a music festival in Germany. The violinist, a brilliant player, and the expert pianist seem to be siblings. The cellist sounds mellow and soft. He seems to take over the instrument Maurice Gendron used to use. What an intimate and pleasing ensemble they are! During performing this pretty tough piece, they were smiling at each other from time to time. When the coda was finished, the audience kept silent for a while. I don't think it was not a staging but a result of how they were moved by the performance. 

When I came back with cello at age around 49 years after a long interval, I wanted to play it sometime and have purchased the score. It turned out, however, to be pretty difficult for me to play escpecially the 2nd movement of variation. It is piled on the other numerous scores in my room. No chance to play those chamber ensembles any longer, I am afraid. I should find out someone who would take them over and make them sound by themselves. Until then, I would listen to such a music as this one with the score.