PapaHaydn's video: Haydn Piano Trio in E Major Hob XV:28 1st movement: Allegro Moderato

The Lórien Trio: Ilya Poletaev (piano), Nicholas di Eugenio (violin), Ashley Bathgate (violoncello) During Haydn's second stay in London in 1794-5, he composed a number of keyboard trios. These works show a considerable advancement in style when compared to those written a decade earlier. Most are in three movements as opposed to the two we find in earlier works, and much of the melodic writing, even in the fast movements, is in a cantabile style. Most of the first movements of the late Trios are in sonata form with substantial development sections that often modulate to distant keys. The Finales are generally in sonata form as well, although the Trio (Sonata) for keyboard, violin & cello in G major, "Gypsy Trio" H. 15/25, opens with a rondo and closes with the famous "Rondo all' Ongarese." Haydn's late keyboard trios are best regarded as keyboard sonatas with the accompaniment of violin and cello. Most of the material lies in the keyboard part, and the most involved passages for the string instruments usually double the keyboard. Surprisingly, the string instruments have very few independent passages. The trios Haydn composed in London were eventually published in sets of three, all of which were dedicated to women. One of the four sets, that containing H. 15/27-29, were intended for Therese Jansen, an excellent pianist in London who had studied with Clementi. Haydn also composed the Piano Sonatas in C major, D major and E flat major (H. 16/50-52) for Ms. Jansen. Unlike the Trios for Rebecca Schroeter, those for Ms. Jansen are among Haydn's most difficult in terms of the technique required of the performer and the most intriguing in terms of composition. The Trio in E major, H. 15/28, is one of Haydn's most unusual works. In the opening Allegro moderato of the E major Trio we find a perfect example of Haydn's approach to cantabile writing. The first theme is a perfectly arched stepwise melody, each pitch preceded by an elegant grace note. The piano graces make the instrument sound like the strings, which are also playing the melody, pizzicato. The most striking moment of the movement occurs in the development section, where the sudden appearance of the theme, in full and played forte on A flat, effectively stops the section's otherwise intense progress. This is the only time we hear the theme forte and the only time it is this thickly harmonized, with the strings playing arco. It doesn't even pretend to be a false recapitulation; it simply makes us wait for things to get going again.