DEVELOPMENT OF A YOUNG GENRE

Joseph Haydn has stirred the hearts of the musical worlds for over 200 years now – however, the value placed on his creative output has fluctuated disturbingly ever since the beginning, both positive and negative. During his lifetime, he was celebrated throughout the whole of Europe as a composer, where his reputation for having an “inexhaustible mind” preceded him. There was adequate acknowledgement of him as a highly influential forerunner of the works of both Mozart and Beethoven. And over the centuries, not a few of his works have tenaciously retained their position in the performance repertoire. Nevertheless, since the criticism uttered by Schumann, the cliché of “Papa Haydn” – the fogeyish, tedious composer, stuck in the traditions of his day and age – remained stubbornly in place until the middle of the 20th century. This narrow and restricting view of Haydn’s substantial and extremely diverse oeuvre was also most certainly due to the lack of a listing of compositions (indeed, this was not produced until 1978 (!), by A. von Hoboken ) and of a complete edition of his works (the first volume of which was published in 1958 by the Henle publishing house, and the edition is still awaiting completion). Only after the trail-blazing work carried out by H.C. Robbins Landon, Jens Peter Larsen and Georg Feder, did horizons widen and were the old clichés disproved. And for a number of years now, Haydn has actually been considered downright modern. Just in time for the anniversary year 2009, which commemorates the 200th anniversary of his death with new and complete recordings of numerous works – including precisely those works with which the public at large is not fully acquainted. Among these, chiefly, Haydn’s piano trios.
The group of piano trios by Haydn comprises more than 40 works – the exact number differs according to the edition consulted. And here a significant role is played by the question of authenticity, which naturally causes researchers a good deal of problems in the case of a much-published composer such as Haydn. Nine piano trios have been recorded on the double CD at hand, all written between the middle and the end of the 1780’s, apart from the Piano Trio Hob. XV:2. An accepted classification of the piano trios compares the early works, which were still called “Partitas” or “Divertimentos”, with the works written between 1784 and 1796 (named “Sonatas”). Furthermore, the latter are subdivided into the works composed for Esterház and the works written in London from 1794 onwards. Haydn considered the piano trios recorded on these CDs to be works for piano with accompaniment of violin and cello (and in some documents he did not even mention the cello ...). The piano trio was a very new genre, for which no general compulsory qualifying standards had yet been laid down, as one can see by the varying number of movements, for example. The increasing significance of the content of the works demonstrates the leading role played by Haydn in the development of the genre – which matured from occasional music via tentative interim steps into a well thought-out and extremely harmonious and individual conception of the genre. Nevertheless, Haydn’s piano trios take a back seat to the string quartets, as far as the possibilities offered by their technical/compositional development capacity are concerned. Right up to the last trio, the cello remains primarily a means of amplifying the bass part, with the main part of the thematic and motivic work being reserved for the piano as the leading instrument. All the same, Haydn managed to achieve subtle sound refinements and register profound feelings, especially in his later works.
The earliest of the piano trios recorded on this CD is the Divertimento Hob. XV:2 in F major, which was probably written between 1767 and 1771. The suite-like character attracts attention, the cello – as is usual for the basso continuo – merely supports the bass part of the piano.
Haydn composed the Piano Trios Hob. XV:6-8 in 1784 and 1785 for the Viennese publisher Artaria. Both the Piano Trio in F major and the Piano Trio in B flat minor consist of only two movements. The Piano Trio in D major is introduced by a variation movement, followed by an Andante with pizzicato effects. The Allegro-Finale exhibits a minore part.
The “Sonata in G major,” Hob. XV:5 was first published in 1785, following an assignment by the English publisher Foster. It is numbered third in a collection; however, research has since verified that Haydn was not the composer of the first two works.
That same year Haydn composed his Piano Trio Hob. XV:10 in E flat major – again for Foster. This is a two-movement work, of which the Allegro is full of modulations. A continuous quaver-movement provides a rhythmic foundation for the Presto.
In the Piano Trio in A major, Hob. XV:9, dating from 1785, Haydn for the first time alters the task settings of the “accompanying” instruments. The cello breaks away from its severe duties as basso continuo instrument, and unites with the violin to counterbalance the piano.
Three years later, in 1788, Haydn wrote both Piano Trios Hob. XV:11 and 12; one of which a two-movement, the other a three-movement work. (They were published by Artaria, together with the Piano Trio in C minor, Hob. XV:13, which is not included on this recording). These are the first piano trios written by Haydn that took into account of the arrival of the hammerklavier. Thus the structure of the piano part is more significantly brilliant here than in earlier works, which had been composed for the harpsichord.

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