Anton Arensky displayed talent at an early age, studying under Rimsky-Korsakov, and teaching Rachmaninoff. But because of his reckless lifestyle of drinking and gambling, Arensky perhaps was not as successful a composer as he might have been, and these habits are believed to have led to his death at the age of forty-four. A contemporary and friend of Tchaikovsky, Anton Arensky's music also reveals the influence of other 19th-century Romantic composers, such as Chopin, Liszt, and Mendelssohn

Composed in 1905, nine years after his first piano trio, opus 73 opens with a serpentine theme which winds its way throughout the first movement with force and consistency. The theme is repeated, fragmented, and varied, serving to unify the movement while simultaneously providing a base for variation within the repeated sections. The movement revisits the opening figure several times, closing with a frantic chase to the closing cadence. The second movement begins with a warm introduction by the violin and cello of the piano, which introduces the theme in a Chopinesque solo passage. The other instruments join in, and gradually, the sweetness found in the solo passage is replaced by a more somber and gray treatment of the theme. Several times, the warm opening tries to return, but is soon interrupted by the darker passages. The movement ends with a final return of the delicate opening, in an effort to provide a happy ending to the narrative. The Scherzo provides a mischievously playful respite from the more serious previous movements, recalling the Scherzo of Arensky's first piano trio. The finale presents a theme and variations, each progressively becoming more fresh and full of personality, including a playful fourth variation, a reflective, waltz-like fifth variation, and a passionate final variation which explodes with Romantic energy and drama. The movement ends with a more calm, introspective return to the original theme.

© Kristen Grimshaw, Rovi