Never quite achieving the appeal and recognition as his teacher
Rimsky-Korsakov, nor his more famous students
Rachmaninov and
Scriabin, the music of
Anton Arensky nevertheless fills an important gap in the succession of Russian musical heritage. In his markedly short lifetime,
Arensky penned some 75 compositions ranging from opera to small-scale chamber works. His two piano trios, the first in D minor and the second in F minor, are heard on this Tudor album performed by the Rachmaninov Trio Moscow. Though its intentions to make
Arensky's somewhat bland trios as vibrant and interesting as possible are clearly apparent, the execution falls a bit short. Each member of the trio is clearly a master of each instrument, but the three separate entities do not gel exceptionally well into a cohesive ensemble. Most noticeably is the seemingly independent concept of articulation and note duration that each musician has; attacks and releases are not uniform. There are noticeable discrepancies in intonation between the string players with neither one seeming to want to give in to the other's center of pitch. As an introduction to these infrequently performed trios, this album is certainly sufficient, but it does not represent any major accomplishments in chamber music artistry.