Classical Music | Music for Trio

Recorded on 11/13/2013, uploaded on 06/16/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Haydn’s Trio in C Major was published in 1797, one in a set of three dedicated to Theresa Bartolozzi, a London friend and accomplished pianist. Scholars believe that it was likely composed around 1794, seven years after Mozart’s final piano trio and around the same time that Beethoven was finishing his own first such works. Within a genre associated, at the time, with the musical amateur, this celebrated trio features a demanding piano part, particularly in the outer movements. Typical of most piano trios before Beethoven, it features three (rather than four) movements in a fast-slow-fast arrangement, in this case, two sonatas flanking an inner movement with a simpler three-part form. The opening allegro is a crisp sonata with a lyrical grace. The second movement follows a clear ABA ternary form, with a particularly dramatic middle section. The finale is a Haydn specialty, a presto with sections of fierce drive featuring fast-paced conversational exchanges between piano and violin. -© Earsense.com

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.