Piano Trios

"Gidon Kremer's dazzling trio here offers two contrasting approaches to the Piano Trio, both offering unexpected pleasures...[the Kissine is] particularly notable for the way Kremer's violin sustains the high notes of the piano, blending seamlessly to produce reflections between the elements Tchaikovsky considered so antithetical." The Independent, 22nd April 2011 ****

"The Kissine is a work of ghostly fragmentation, like a broken discourse which grows in coherence. It leads straight into the soulful opening of the Tchaikovsky. Kremer leads with an air of languid tragedy, which is yet visceral and richly expressive. Many recordings of this work exist. I liked the intensely Russian, almost coarse authenticity of this performance." The Observer, 17th April 2011

This newest project from Gidon Kremer is one of the events of the season: the great violinist in a new trio with two outstanding young musicians, Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili and Lithuanian cellist Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė, celebrated as two of the most gifted players of their generation. It features a pair of compositions bracketing the history of Russian chamber music - a revelatory account of Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio, juxtaposed with Victor Kissine's Zerkalo of 2009.

Tchaikovsky has not previously been heard on ECM. When Kremer and friends play the Trio for piano, violin and violoncello op. 50, composed in 1882, they wring the emotion from the music's Russian soul, and simultaneously convey the sense that the music is both modern and timeless.

Kremer recorded the work live for another label some years ago, but he wanted to return to the music as an "elder statesman" and bring to it the knowledge and insights acquired along the way. The result is a landmark ECM album. The recording was made at Munich's Church of the Ascension (Himmelfahrtskirche) with Manfred Eicher producing: ECM New Series sound at its most glorious. Cellist Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė has been a member of Kemerartica Baltica since 1997. In her native Lithuania she took masterclasses with Rostropovich and Tatjana Grindenko. Both Dirvanauskaitė and Khatia Buniatishvili appeared on Kremer's recent Hymns and Prayers for ECM, where Buniatishvili, recent winner of a prestigious Borletti-Buitioni Trust Award, delivered an exceptional performance in the César Franck Piano Quintet.