Sergei Rachmaninoff's Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9 is a piano trio which he began composing on 25 October 1893 and completed on 15 December that year. It was written in memory of Tchaikovsky and was inscribed with the dedication "In Memory of a Great Artist". It was first performed in Moscow on 31 January 1894 by Rachmaninoff himself, the violinist Julius Conus, and the cellist Anatoli Brandukov.The trio is in three movements, taking approximately 50 minutes to perform:
The first movement starts with a sombre tone along with increasingly complex and powerful musical ideas , which return in both the second movement and at the close of the final movement. the opening bars of this movement return as the climax of the last movement.
The second movement consists of eight variations upon the main theme of Rachmaninoff's symphonic poem The Rock.
The final movement, although short in comparison to the previous movements, is dominated by the unceasingly powerful and dramatic piano part.
This piano trio is similar to Tchaikovsky's Trio in A minor, which was dedicated to Nikolai Rubinstein; it follows the same basic structure.
