Peter Yarin Trio

seasons: past and present

after Tchaikovsky

Thirteen arrangements for piano trio, based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, Op. 37a.

“…in the end, unlike anything I had heard before.” Mark Lopeman

  • 13 tracks
  • 55:08
  • Physical CD available September 24
Album cover: three pale trumpet-shaped forms rising from a dark, grainy monoprint field, with the album title set in the upper left.

Track listing

  1. 1Prologueon a fragment of “November”0:41
  2. 2JanuaryRadiator BluesBy the Hearth4:31
  3. 3FebruaryRent PartyCarnival3:14
  4. 4MarchSongbird's ReturnSong of the Lark3:56
  5. 5AprilSnowdrop VariationsSnowdrop5:07
  6. 6MaySearchlightWhite Nights5:27
  7. 7JuneBoleroBarcarolle5:36
  8. 8JulyCrime WaveSong of the Reaper5:29
  9. 9AugustNight MarketHarvest Song4:39
  10. 10SeptemberSchoolbus ShuffleHunting Song4:08
  11. 11OctoberGreenwood at MidnightAutumn Song4:13
  12. 12NovemberOn Pilgrim HillOn the Troika3:54
  13. 13DecemberWaltzChristmas4:05
13 tracks · 55:08

All music composed, arranged and adapted by Peter Yarin, based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, Op. 37a.

Release Information

The CD ships in a digipak with the eight-page booklet. Physical CD available September 24. Streaming release coming later.

Tchaikovsky and The Seasons

Portrait photograph of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky wrote his piano cycle The Seasons on commission for the St. Petersburg publisher Nikolay Bernard beginning in 1875, while he was also working on his first ballet, Swan Lake. It was a practical assignment, written for the mass media of its time: Bernard's music periodical, Nuvellist. The monthly publication of the magazine generated the structure of The Seasons: twelve pieces, one for each month. Tchaikovsky needed the money and was not particularly precious about the assignment; in his correspondence with Bernard he invited changes, and at one point he asked for an advance.

Nuvellist was directed largely toward amateur pianists and music-making in the home. Nonetheless, once the twelve pieces were gathered together, they found a popular life of their own; as Tchaikovsky's reputation grew, they also found their way into the concert hall.

It is easy to see why both things occurred. There is a modesty of scale, and even of technical demand, that does not suggest grandiosity. The musical language remains direct and the textures compact. But within these small frames lies a remarkable amount of life and movement. They contain some of music's most elemental human activities: song, dance, and prayer. Their ability to live both in the home and in the concert hall seems representative of Tchaikovsky's enduring gifts as a melodist and an expressive storyteller through music.

Liner notes

Each generation sees and re-sees old places, hears and re-hears old tunes.

As a young piano student, before I had discovered or explored jazz music, I would find myself spontaneously improvising on classical pieces (needless to say, when I was supposed to be practicing). I suppose that impulse has never left and eventually led me to create these thirteen arrangements, corresponding to the twelve pieces in Tchaikovsky's cycle The Seasons, plus my own “Prologue,” which is itself based on a fragment of Tchaikovsky's “November.”

Nearly a century and a half, a continent and an ocean separate the St. Petersburg of Tchaikovsky's time from the New York of today. When I first encountered The Seasons, through “June: Barcarolle,” I felt I had encountered something timeless. In “June,” melancholy and joy run side by side. They chase each other through Tchaikovsky's year, sometimes playing against one's associations, sometimes wrestling for control of the narrative. One experiences the shock of these reversals no less sharply today than he did, for the essential qualities of human nature remain: we are living beings, witnesses to the passage of time, subject to the inevitability of the blues.

But as time telescopes forward, perceptual cycles evolve: from days to months to seasons to years, to generations. Prosperity and famine, ruptures and reconciliations are folded into one another; trends appear and fall away.

Each generation sees and re-sees old places, hears and re-hears old tunes. For me, Tchaikovsky's twelve character pieces seemed to morph into stories of present-day New York City. Details change, and emphases shift: Tchaikovsky's “Carnival” becomes stride; a bolero finds its way beneath the “Barcarolle”; modalities turn from bright to dark and back again in “July.”

I have had the joy of discovering these pieces on my own, first as solo-piano explorations, and yet again with my wonderful colleagues on this record, Dmitri Kolesnik and Uri Zelig.

For now, please enjoy these twelve New York stories—they are a retelling.

Peter Yarin · New York, September 2026

A misty river at dusk, bare trees above an old stone viaduct, distant towers on the far bank.

About the trio

The three members of the Peter Yarin Trio standing together in front of a graffitied wall.
L to R: Uri Zelig, Dmitri Kolesnik, Peter Yarin
  • Peter Yarin piano
  • Dmitri Kolesnik bass
  • Uri Zelig drums

I met Uri Zelig and Dmitri Kolesnik in the course of NYC sideman life. We three first all worked together in 2022, as a backing group for a singer's weekly gig. Though this involved a large and constant amount of learning new material, we realized that we shared a desire to collaborate further. The process began of first exchanging original tunes and arrangements, then starting to rehearse regularly outside of gigs, completing an initial recording project, and now, the Seasons. I am deeply grateful for their creativity, persistence, and curiosity and their vital musical contributions here.

Peter Yarin

A Few Words About seasons: past and present

“So, prepare to enjoy a wild ride through the year.”

The “Swingin'-the-Classics” genre is a hallowed and well-worn one. From tepid Bach knock-offs, to classic works of genius like Ellington's version of the Nutcracker Suite, almost anything in the “classical” canon can be fair game for transformation by jazz musicians. So, my curiosity was piqued when Peter Yarin told me that he was working on piano trio versions of all twelve pieces in Tchaikovsky's The Seasons cycle of short piano pieces.

What evolved is the CD you are holding right now, and my advice to you is, before you listen to any of it, clear your mind of any idea of what you are about to hear, and prepare to listen with open ears and real concentration, because that is what this music both demands, and deserves. Peter has transformed every part of Tchaikovsky's work in a most complex and ingenious manner.

The music covers a wide stylistic ground, always in an integrated and satisfying way. At various times I am reminded of legendary jazz pianists including Bud Powell, Chick Corea, Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk, and many others. Which is not to suggest that there is anything dully imitative here—there is not; on the contrary, this collection reveals Peter and his trio to have a unique and distinctive voice: in the end, unlike anything I had heard before.

In recent years Peter has shown himself to be a hugely accomplished pianist who works at a high level in widely separated idioms—performing standard works of the classical repertoire; playing wickedly difficult stride piano transcriptions as the regular pianist with Vince Giordano's Nighthawks; making all kinds of recording sessions; backing up singers of every stripe—and regularly leading the trio that made this CD.

And what a trio! At every point drummer Uri Zelig creates a fascinating counterpoint, rooted in all manner of jazz drumming traditions, to Peter's complex arrangements, while bassist Dmitri Kolesnik, with his rich tone and solid time, provides exactly the right anchor.

So, prepare to enjoy a wild ride through the year.

Mark Lopeman · August 2026

Credits

Executive producer
Peter Yarin
Assistant producer
Mark Lopeman
Recording engineer
Tom Tedesco
Mixing & mastering
Chris Sulit
Recorded at
Tedesco Studios, Paramus NJ
Session dates
November 26, 2025
January 22, 2026
March 26, 2026
May 28, 2026
Cover art
Alexis Portilla, Three of Us
Booklet cover
Alexis Portilla, Family
Interior art
Alexis Portilla, Ghost Song
Photographs
Tina Micic
Tchaikovsky portrait
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Graphic design
Susan Manley Lopeman

Acknowledgments

My special thanks to the band: Dmitri Kolesnik and Uri Zelig; to Mark Lopeman for his guidance, encouragement, and thoughtful feedback; and to Tom Tedesco and Chris Sulit for helping shape the sound of the recording.

Special thanks to Isabelle O'Connell, Jennifer Patten, and the Diller-Quaile School of Music for giving this music a home in recital, and to Susie Sigel and Bryant Park for giving us the opportunity to premiere the project there.

Thanks to Alexis Portilla for his inspiration and images, and to Susan Manley Lopeman for bringing the visual world into its final design.

My brother Paul, for his insight and support.

And with love and gratitude, thanks to my wife Tina Micic.

For my mother, a translator

Naoko Takeda Yarin

1933 – 2026