The first Piano Trio (also from 1894) is another commemorative work, this time with a dedication to his friend the cellist Karl Davidoff who had been Director of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire when Arensky was there as a student and had died suddenly in 1889. It is no surprise that the cello features prominently in this wonderfully elegiac work.

The expansive first movement opens with a lyrical theme stated twice by the violin over a gently rippling accompaniment. With the cello's arrival both instruments briefly "discuss" the theme before a dance– like episode is reached. Its carefree mood soon makes way for a new expressive idea announced by the cello. To this quiet rapture the violin joins in, and after a dramatic flourish from the piano the music builds towards an intense coda– the piano very much a leading participant. Imitative phrases derived from both the opening theme and the dance– like episode fashion the development and following a dramatic passage of tremolando strings the violin ushers in a full recapitulation with the main theme. An Adagio section reminiscing on the main theme brings the movement to a gentle close.

Where the first movement is rhapsodic, the second, an infectious Scherzo, is a glittering waltz, its buoyant mood built on the violin's stammering figure and the piano's cascading scales. Humor of a different kind continues in the Trio where the piano's resolute accompaniment to cello and violin seem to nosethumb decades of Viennese tradition. It is perhaps in the Adagio movement– the emotional core of this work– that the cellist Davidoff is most fondly recalled. In the Elegia, muted cello pours out a heartfelt melody over a dignified accompaniment, expressing grief and desolation of death. A slightly faster central panel brings a lighter mood and a new theme of great charm is given to the piano and supported by undulating strings. With the reprise of the main theme, on the violin's lowest string, the elegiac mood brings this Adagio to a peaceful conclusion.

The finale is built on contrasting paragraphs of great restlessness and more leisurely discourse that recall the earlier movements. A sense of impetuosity begins the finale where driving rhythms from the piano and vigorous string interjections (with some virtuosic violin passages) push the music onward with boundless energy. This leads to the first more relaxed passage– its lyricism recalling the elegiac idea. A return to the dramatic earlier passage leads to further reminders of the slow movement– this time the rising contours of the central theme. Further drama eventually leads to the work's nostalgia opening theme, but it is the movement's restlessness that ultimately prevails.

Writer: David Truslove