Haydn Piano Trios

[Belle]

I've just discovered this essay on Music Web International which was written by one of our erstwhile presenters in our local music group. David moved over 2 years ago to another country to work at a university in his profession of Chemical Engineering in which he holds a Doctorate. But he writes and thinks rather like a musicologist (though he plays no music and has no training, to my knowledge). For your interest I post his offering on his survey of Haydn's Piano Trios:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/t ... _Haydn.pdf

[John F]

In "The Classical Style," Charles Rosen gives major treatment to Haydn's piano trios rather than his string quartets. (For that medium Rosen focuses on Beethoven.) That surprised me, I only knew one of the trios, and I picked up the complete set by the Beaux Arts Trio to find out what I'd been missing. Naturally there's much fine music in those discs - this is Haydn, after all - but the trios haven't joined the quartets, piano sonatas, and of course the symphonies at the top of my personal Haydn list.

Barker's piece is very much worthwhile for its clarification of this body of music. Less so as a survey of the recordings. His two sentences on historical recordings are perfunctory and incomplete. The most famous Haydn trio recording was made in 1927 by Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals, of the G major; Szymon Goldberg recorded not one but three of the piano trios and his partners were Lili Kraus and Anthony Pini. There were quite a few notable recordings on 78s and early LPs, including Russian versions by Lev Oborin, David Oistrakh, and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, and their rivals Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, and Mstislav Rostropovich. I haven't checked to see which of these are currently available, but no doubt some of them are.

Here's the most historical of them all, with the dashing finale played with gypsy flair:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBIrsthMGrg

[jbuck919]

Notice the first program on March 31, which I intend to attend. You might think that this is a provincial group, especially since it is rather pick-up, (The director is the concertmaster of the Albany Symphony, who happens to live in Stony Creek, population 750.) Around here even the relatively few classical music fans would consider anyone who programmed nothing but five Haydn piano trios to be stark raving mad. Even in NYC such a program would be questioned by serious critics, but I can't wait. It is once in a lifetime.

[barney]

I found it a really interesting survey, and thanks for sharing the link.
I have the complete Beaux Arts collection, and love these works.
I don't have many other versions - one CD of Gilels, Kogan and Rostropovich, and one CD of Andras Schiff and friends.