Tchaikovsky / Rachmaninov: Piano Trios

Lang Lang's rare forays into chamber music have been extolled by the press. The critic for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung described his concert experience as "almost like seeing a newborn Lang Lang." Famous for his dynamic, impetuous, hair-raising virtuoso solo turns, Lang Lang unveils a fascinating facet of his musical make-up: he is a team player on the highest possible level.

Tchaikovsky composed the expansive Piano Trio in A minor, "In memory of a great artist," to commemorate the death of his friend and mentor, Nikolai Rubinstein. The only major piece Tchaikovsky composed in 1881, the A minor's unusual form reinvented the genre. Conceived in two long movements, its short variations in the second are colorful evocations of Rubinstein's personality. Before composing it, Tchaikovsky was convinced that piano and strings, given their dissimilar sounds, were incompatible in small ensembles. The completed Trio in A minor happily proved him wrong.