After the Bolshoi's artists performed a spectacular ballet and opera show to open the Year of Russia in China on March 21, a number of Russian artists will tour China with a variety of programs.

While Beijing's theatre-goers had a blast watching the comedy "Even A Wise Man Stumbles" performed by the State Academy Maly Drama last week, classical music fans will also look forward to the concert by the acclaimed Moscow Rachmaninov Trio at the Forbidden City Concert Hall on Friday night.

The Trio will then fly down to southern China, performing in Shanghai on April 2, Nanjing on April 4, Hangzhou on April 7 and Guangzhou on April 9 for a final show.

The program of the China tour includes Schubert's "Piano Trio No 2 in E Major" and Rachmaninov's famous "Trio Elegiaque No 2 in D Minor."

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) composed the "Trio Elegiaque No 2 in D Minor" in 1893 in memory of his lamented predecessor Tchaikovsky.

It is said when Rachmaninov was around 13, he mingled with the great composers of Russia, notably Tchaikovsky who had a profound influence on him. Caught up in the fever of composing his first symphony, Rachmaninov wrote the first "Trio Elegiaque" in just three days, between January 18-21, 1892.

The "Trio Elegiaque No 2 in D Minor" truly is, as the title suggests, very elegiac in nature. It is quite evident that Rachmaninov was going through a tough period as Tchaikovsky mentioned to Natalya Skalon in a letter that "he trembled for every phrase, sometimes crossed out absolutely everything and began to think and think about it all over again."

The piece begins in an extremely melancholic manner as the cello takes its long bow-strokes in a minor key. It seems that when any composer writes in D minor, the tragic nature of the work is truly accentuated. And this Trio for piano, cello and violin clearly shows the pain that Rachmaninov was going through.

Making its debut in 1994, the Trio is composed of three musicians all from the Moscow Conservatory and having worked internationally as soloists and chamber musicians.

The pianist Viktor Yampolsky has worked with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and was chosen as the pianist for composer Edison Denisov's Moscow Ensemble for Contemporary Music. The violinist Mikhail Tsinman won the Mozart competition in Salzburg in 1991 and now he is the faculty member of the Moscow Conservatory as well as the orchestra leader of the Bolshoi Theatre. The cellist Natalia Savinova is a member of the Moscow Ensemble of Contemporary Music.

(China Daily March 30, 2006)