Tchaikovsky work’s essence found

Peter Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in a minor has been one of my favorite pieces of chamber music for — well, for a lot of years. And Tuesday night’s performance of it at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock was certainly a joy to hear.

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra co- concertmaster Kiril Laskarov, violin, and Stephen Feldman, cello, joined guest pianist Kara Benyas for a sterling performance of the majestic, massive work, part of the orchestra’s River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series.

Tchaikovsky penned the piece, subtitled “To the Memory of a Great Artist,” after the death of his teacher and mentor, Anton Rubinstein; its first movement is melancholy, even funereal. The second movement is a theme and variations, the hell- forleather last of which leads, not to a whiz- bang finale, but a return of the first theme, this time as a funeral march with the tempo marking “Lugubre.”

Laskarov, who stood to play, and Feldman were superb; if there was anything about the performance that didn’t measure, it was the balance between string players and pianist early in the first movement, when Benyas at times pounded disproportionately loudly for the size of the room.

The first half of the program was as different in mood, construction and in performance as could be from the Tchaikovsky Trio: John Adams’ String Quartet No. 1, ably played by the orchestra’s Rockefeller String Quartet ( Trisha McGovern Freeney and Katherine Williamson, violin; Katherine Reynolds, viola; and Ethan Young, cello).

The minimalist — actually almost anti- minimalist — piece is certainly not melodic in any conventional sense, but the four players made the most of what melody there was, and handled very well the work’s tonal, rhythmic and harmonic complexities.