Piano Trio in C major (Hob.XV:27)

If Haydn’s were to be the last significant Piano Trios of their kind - in his first set of Piano Trios Op.1 Beethoven firmly followed Mozart’s example in securing some kind of equality for the three instruments - they are no less successful for that. They are particularly inspired when written for a pianist he admired, like Theresa Jansen, the highly regarded London piano teacher to whom he dedicated not only his last three Piano Trios (in C, E and E flat major) but also his last three Piano Sonatas. His admiration for her both as an uncommonly accomplished pianist and as an intelligent and imaginative musician is abundantly clear from the Piano Trio in C major, which is motivated throughout by the piano’s spontaneous initiative.

The exuberant main theme of the Allegro first movement, introduced by the piano in the opening bars, is surely a reflection of the Jansen personality. Certainly, the strings never get to play it. They take part in the exchanges of a little two-note phrase just after that exhilarating beginning but as soon as they catch up with the piano it changes the subject and moves in another direction. They are most effectively employed in the development section, engaging in serious-minded contrapuntal exchanges with the piano and, just before the definitive recall of the main theme, joining in a brief but interesting study in veiled instrumental colouring where even the cello is heard to add its distinctive voice.

The most remarkable passage in the whole work, however, is the middle section of the Adagio, where the piano involves the violin (and sometimes the cello) in a sustained and dramatic discussion in A minor - an event all the more surprising for the peaceful context, characterised from the start by a graceful main theme in A major, in which it takes place.

Having revealed that tougher side of its personality, and having indulged itself in a cadenza just before the end of the Adagio, the piano is now happy to revert to the carefree mood it displayed in the opening Allegro. The melodic outline of the C major theme it so playfully presents at the beginning of the Presto Finale is, in fact, the same as that of the main theme of the first movement, even though the tempo and rhythms are rather different. It also imitates its counterpart in the first movement by remaining the exclusive property of the piano, the unstoppable virtuoso activity of which scarcely gives even the violin a chance to share the main thematic interest.

Of Haydn’s last fourteen piano trios – all of them written in the 1790s – twelve of them were written for women: the first two sets (of three each) are dedicated to the two Esterhazy princess respectively and the next two sets to admirers in London. All these dedicatees were pianists, whose personalities are represented in the parts he wrote for them – at the expense, it might be added, of the string players. The cellist, who has little more to do in all these works than double the bass line, is particularly underprivileged: a desirable precaution when Haydn started writing piano trios in the middle of the 1760s, with the further development of the piano it was no longer necessary to restrict the cello in this way, as Mozart had already demonstrated.

The first of the set of three dedicated in 1795 to Princess Marie Hermenegild Esterházy, who was a good friend to her husband’s distinguished employee, the Piano Trio in C major is a particularly attractive work. It begins with a slow introduction marked Adagio pastorale which, though short, contains the basis of the thematic material of the whole movement. The cheerful opening theme of the Vivace assai is clearly based on it. So is the second subject which, although the harmonies are different, is much the same tune as the first. The rustic episode at the end of the exposition is in the same spirit, but in a much livelier way, as the pastorale introduction. After a not very searching development a composer as imaginative as Haydn could scarcely offer a recapitulation which is just a straight repeat of the exposition – and, indeed, plunging disturbingly into C minor before restoring the emotional equilibrium, he doesn’t.

Like the first movement, the Andante molto is based on just one theme, a simple but highly engaging melody introduced by violin. Although the movement takes the shape of a series of variations, the melodic outline of the theme remains much the same, the variety being in the modulations its goes through and the expressive decorations applied to it in the piano part.

Whether Princess Marie shared the composer’s interest in gypsy music, which was regularly to be heard in the countryside at Esterháza, we do not know. Haydn himself doesn’t seem to have been so sure about it. While the gypsy idiom clearly influenced the zestful main theme of the Finale, the rhythmic syncopationas and some of the instrumental colouring, he is quite discreet about it – in comparison, that is, with his wholehearted embrace of the idiom in the “Gypsy Rondo” finale of the Piano Trio in G major he was to write a few months later. It is no less entertaining for that.

When Haydn wrote his Piano Trio in C major, apparently not long after his return to Vienna from his second visit to London in 1795, Mozart’s Piano Trios had been in print for seven years or more. If any proof were needed that the modern piano, violin and cello could converse together on something approaching equal terms, there it was - even if the piano was still the dominant voice and the violin still more prominent than the cello. Haydn persisted, however, in treating the piano trio as, at best, a duo for a star pianist and a modest violinist, relegating the cellist for the most part to the unglamorous task of doubling the piano bass line.

If Haydn’s were to be the last significant Piano Trios of their kind - in his recently published first set of Piano Trios Op.1 Beethoven had firmly followed Mozart’s example - they were no less successful for that. They were particularly inspired when written for a pianist he admired, like Theresa Jansen, the highly regarded London piano teacher to whom he dedicated not only his last three Piano Trios (in C, E and E flat major) but also his last three Piano Sonatas. His admiration for her both as an uncommonly accomplished pianist and as an intelligent and imaginative musician is abundantly clear from the Piano Trio in C major, which is motivated throughout by the piano’s spontaneous initiative.

The exuberant main theme of the Allegro first movement, introduced by the piano in the opening bars, is surely a reflection of the Jansen personality. Certainly, the strings never get to play it. They take part in the exchanges of a little two-note phrase just after that exhilarating beginning but as soon as they catch up with the piano it changes the subject and moves in another direction. They are most effectively employed in the development section, engaging in serious-minded contrapuntal exchanges with the piano and, just before the definitive recall of the main theme, joining in a brief but interesting study in veiled instrumental colouring where even the cello is heard to add its distinctive voice.

The most remarkable passage in the whole work, however, is the middle section of the Adagio, where the piano involves the violin (and sometimes the cello) in a sustained and dramatic discussion in A minor - an event all the more surprising for the peaceful context, characterised from the start by a graceful main theme in A major, in which it takes place.

Having revealed that tougher side of its personality, and having indulged itself in a cadenza just before the end of the Adagio, the piano is now happy to revert to the carefree mood it displayed in the opening Allegro. The melodic outline of the C major theme it so playfully presents at the beginning of the Presto Finale is, in fact, the same as that of the main theme of the first movement, even though the tempo and rhythms are rather different. It also imitates its counterpart in the first movement by remaining the exclusive property of the piano, the unstoppable virtuoso activity of which scarcely gives even the violin a chance to share the main thematic interest.

Gerald Larner©