‘Their approach to Alyabiev’s Trio in A Minor is so extraordinary that one is reminded of Goethe’s famous quote: ‘Boldness has genius, power and magic in it’. Perhaps that’s what this music so desperately needed – to prove how exciting it can sound nowadays. 

This album is an unquestionable creative success, and one would like to celebrate it and wish a successful continuation of this anthology of the Russian Piano Trio, perhaps the most exquisite genre of chamber music.’
– muzlifemagazine.ru

The piano trio holds an important place in the history of Russian chamber music and to follow the development of the genre is to accompany the fascinating history of Russian music in the 19th century. Its beginnings can be found with Alexander Alyabiev, a student of John Field, whose unfinished but elegant and vivacious Piano Trio in E flat major is paired with the yearning Romanticism of the Piano Trio in A minor. Mikhail Glinka’s Trio pathétique bears the inscription ‘I have only known love through the sorrow it causes!’, while Anton Rubinstein’s elaborately acrobatic piano writing in his Piano Trio in G minor reminds us of his own virtuosity, and reveals his magnificent skills as a melodist.

‘A warmly affectionate performance of Piano Trio in A Major by Paul Pabst … it is a work of considerable persuasiveness with its unpredictable harmonies, a delightful intermezzo, and a tour-de-force of a finale… The present performance by the Brahms Trio captures and preserves the remarkable flow of lyricism in this work.’
– Audio Video Club of Atlanta

The Russian piano trio reached its apogee with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, dedicated to the memory of Nikolay Rubinstein. A monumental piece in the repertoire, it is cast in only two movements, and was played at Tchaikovsky’s own memorial concert two years after its composition. Paul Pabst’s Piano Trio in A major is less well known. Composed in memory of Nikolay Rubinstein’s brother, Anton, it is a work of exceptional virtuosity and flowing lyricism, with unpredictable harmonies, a delightful Intermezzo and a tour de force of a Finale.