In Western Europe and soon thereafter in America, Peter Tchaikovsky became perhaps the best-known, most fêted of all Russian composers. In his extensive piano oeuvre, he provided a significant contribution to the sophisticated salon music of the Romantic period. The sweetly wistful “Chanson triste” from the “Twelve Pieces of Moderate Difficulty” op. 40 from 1878 is of such cantabile character that it could be described as a song without words. As the most popular and most important piece from op...