Haydn: Piano Trio No. 43 in C Major, Hob.XV:27

Haydn’s Keyboard Trios possess a rich variety of themes and musical inventiveness, with strong demands on the pianist. The C major is dramatic and eventful. Patterns are varied in the E major where Haydn gives the violin major lyrical statements, whilst in the E flat major he uses all his wit and guile to launch the finale’s captivating and joyful dance finale. The E flat major Hob. XV: 30 is notable for is subtle thematic development and commanding drama. Volume 1 (8572040) of this series has been greatly admired, not least by Gramophone which stated that the Kungsbacka Piano Trio had nothing to fear from any other account.

Haydn’s folksong arrangements offer us a subtle mix of nature poetry, dance, and the joys and tribulations of love (with familial hurdles along the way). Perfect in form but rhythmic and rousing too. And paired with them here, two 'classical' trios. Julie Kaufmann finds just the right nuances of expression, both for the hopes and the disappointments of love. Two piano trios which can be regarded as paradigms of this form of composition complete the programme. Whilst the Trio in C is impressive for its carefully balanced developments and transitions, the 'Gipsy' Trio in G features a captivating final rondo “in the gipsies’ style” (from which it takes its name). The piece is songlike and melodic not only in the opening variation movement but also in the slow middle section, which precedes the whirligig finale.

Chamber music devotees will welcome with enthusiasm this first volume of a new series by one of the world’s greatest piano trios. Every recording by the award-winning Florestan Trio receives extravagant plaudits from the critical world and the public alike. Haydn’s piano trios are a uniquely important body of work in the classical spectrum and a detailed survey by this group is welcome indeed—especially in 2009, when the musical world will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

The piano trio form (where the piano took centre stage and was accompanied by a violin and a cello) was popular in domestic circles and many composers supplied the market. Haydn took the form beyond the domestic arena, and indeed poured into his accompanied sonatas as much inventiveness and range of musical expression as he did into his mature piano sonatas and string quartets. But the music requires a very different approach from the great piano trios of later composers. It requires a particular sensitivity to the shifting relationships between strings and piano, which Haydn exploits so subtly. When it receives it, these trios are revealed as works with a very special sense of unified, co-operative music-making, unlike anything else in the history of music.

Four such works from Haydn’s career are recorded here. Among them the Piano Trio in C major Hob XV:27 was written for one of Clementi’s finest pupils and the piano writing is suitably virtuosic. The delightful Piano Trio in G major was written while Haydn was at Esterháza and revels in the Hungarian gyspy music which the composer heard at this time.

These wonderful performances of Haydn's Piano Trios - eight in all, across the two volumes - have long been unavailable. They were enthusiastically greeted by Richard Wigmore with the following words upon their first appearance and are now reissued at super-budget price.

Trio Goya plays classical chamber music on period instruments. Formed out of a collective fascination with the new colours and narratives that these instruments suggest, the group concentrates its repertoire on the trios by Haydn and Mozart and the Opus 1 set by Beethoven. A fortepiano by Paul McNulty after Anton Walter, Vienna 1795 is the centrepiece of their performances.

The Trio takes its name from the fact that the working lives of all these composers were encompassed by the lifespan of Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828): his place in the development of painting is comparable to that of Beethoven in music, and the Trio’s chosen repertoire follows the same Enlightenment path, from classical elegance to romantic expression.

The piano trio formed an important part of Haydn’s chamber music output. During the 1790s, when the composer was at the height of his fame, the genre became very fashionable in Paris and London. The 1790s was also the period when Haydn came to England to perform his works at the famous Salomon concerts, for which he wrote his twelve ‘London’ symphonies. Many of Haydn’s greatest works for piano trio – including the pieces on this recording – were written during this period.

The range of colour and imagination displayed by the works on this disc is striking, from the brilliance of the opening movement of the C major Trio, Hob. XV: 27 to the darker-hued colours found in the F sharp minor Trio, Hob. XV: 26. Each of the trios is imbued with the bubbling vitality and classical elegance for which this composer is famous.

Superb reviews for the Vienna Piano Trio’s previous recordings:

“It is not only the phenomenal precision and the perfect teamwork that grip us here but also and above all a passionate and highly musical interpretation” (pizzicato).

“The fresh, intensely poetic Viennese performance will now be first off the shelves“ (BBC Music Magazine).