Piano Trio in G major H.XV/25 “Gypsy Rondo” (1795)

Of Haydn’s last fourteen piano trios, all of them written in the 1790s, twelve of them were written for women, – all of them pianists, whose personalities are reflected in the parts he wrote for them. There are no better examples of that than the three works published in 1795 with a dedication to Rebecca Schroeter, the “amiable widow” the composer had met in London four years earlier. The Andante first movement of the Piano Trio in G major is a highly sociable set of variations on a theme introduced by violin and piano in unison. The equality of the two instruments is sustained throughout the four variations, the third and fourth of which offer modestly decorative virtuoso opportunities to the violin and piano respectively. The Poco adagio is a very much more private affair, the piano opening the conversation with a tender statement in E major, the violin responding with a passionate reply in A major, the two of them joining in unison again on the return of the opening theme. The throbbing low Es on the cello in the last-but-one bar are all the more effective for being so unexpected.

What Mrs Schroeter made of the last movement – headed “Rondo in the Gyspsies’ stile” in the original English edition – it is difficult to imagine. For Haydn, who could have heard Hungarian gypsy bands at Esterháza and who probably had a collection of such tunes, it was familiar material. For an amateur pianist in London, even one with Haydn as a teacher, it must have seemed very strange indeed. It is still highly effective for the reckless brilliance of the main theme and the exotic quality of the two episodes in minor keys.