Preghiera – Rachmaninov: Piano Trios – Daniil Trifonov

   in Piano International (Nov, 2017)
Entitled Preghiera (literally, a prayer or entreaty), the presiding spirit in this superb recording is Gidon Kremer. Celebrating his 70th birthday, Kremer invited two of his favourite young artists, cellist Giedr? Dirvanauskait? and pianist Daniil Trifonov, to join him in the two Rachmaninov Trios. As a haunting addition, Kremer adds an arrangement for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler of the theme from the slow movement of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto.

The substantial and expressive centre of this disc is the Trio élégiaque No 2 in D minor, music written in the throes of grief experienced by Rachmaninov on hearing of the death of Tchaikovsky: ‘composed when ill in spirit’ and …