When his benefactor Nadezhda von Meck asked Tchaikovsky in 1880 if he would write something for trio (violin, cello and piano), he refused, saying:
You ask why I have never written a trio. Forgive me, dear friend; I would do anything to give you pleasure, but this is beyond me … I simply cannot endure the combination of piano with violin or cello. To my mind the timbre of these instruments will not blend … it is torture for me to have to listen to a string trio or a sonata of any kind for piano and strings. To my mind, the piano can be effective in only three situations: alone, in context with the orchestra, or as accompaniment, i.e., the background of a picture
Just one year later, a grief stricken Tchaikovsky changed his mind and wrote his only trio in memory of his friend Nicolai Rubinstein, who had died that same year. It is dedicated to the memory of a great artist: À la mémoire d’un grand artiste.
The shape of this trio is most unusual. It starts with a standard first movement, but instead of the traditional three follow-up movements, there is just one, and it is a theme with variations. Those variations grow more and more agitated. And then something miraculous happens: out of those variations, Tchaikovsky returns to the theme of the first movement, in its most majestic form. This is not what a normal trio should do.