Classical Music | Music for Trio

Recorded on 02/29/2012, uploaded on 06/13/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

This Trio is a work full of character and humor. The first movement is like a march, but with an almost mock-ecclesiastical air, and with its dignity punctuated by sudden accents and flourishes. A middle section moves into the minor, and becomes more serious and lyrical, allowing the violin to expand with a melody of its own. When the march returns, it is subjected to Haydn’s favorite variation techniques. The decoration becomes more and more elaborate, moving further and further from the mock-simplicity of the original. Just when the march seems to have run its course, Haydn adds a substantial coda, in which the music is pulled towards a remote and strange area, before recovering itself for a final show of self-confidence.

For the slow movement, Haydn shifts down a major third to B major. The gently rocking, expansive melody gives the impression that Haydn might be settling down to quite a long movement—as Beethoven had done in his recently published Op 1 piano trios. But all of a sudden he takes a turn back by a subtle succession of modulations to the trio’s opening key of E flat, and the piano launches unexpectedly into the finale. This is a triple-time ‘German Dance’. At first its mood is genial, but there are moments of truculent stamping, and suggestions of gypsy fiddles and a hurdy-gurdy.    Patrick Jee

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.