Firma Melodiya presents a rarity of Russian chamber music, string quartets by Sergei Taneyev performed by Lubotsky Trio. In the early 20th century, they called Taneyev “musical conscience of Moscow.” Tchaikovsky’s best student and friend, the first recipient of the Big Gold Medal of the Moscow Conservatory, and a teacher of Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and other famous composers, Taneyev proved to be an outstanding pianist, composer, educator and music theorist. A true master of polyphonic composition and a fine ensemble performer, Taneyev devoted special attention to thematic development, vibrant voiceleading, subtle palette of strokes, and sought to find an ideal balance between emotional and rational in music. The chamber and instrumental genres were perhaps the ones that answered his artistic demands to the greatest extent. Two string trios – E flat major, Op. 31, and B minor (no opus) – on this album belong to the 1910’s, the last period of Taneyev’s life. The latter one remained unfinished and was published many years after the composer’s death. The recording was made in Germany in 2015, the year of the 100th anniversary of the prominent Russian composer’s death.

This album of Russian violin concertos does what many modern orchestras do when programming concert repertoire. That is, feature one quite famous work (in this case, the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto) to draw in more tentative patrons, then throw in a few less well-known but still deserving pieces (in this case, the Arensky and Rimsky-Korsakov). This approach is both effective and appropriate. The programming of these three composers is also historically intelligent; Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were contemporaries, and Arensky was one of Rimsky-Korsakov's many successful students.