ROMANTIC PIANO TRIOS

Allegro moderato 
Andante 
Allegro 
 

Haydn’s Piano Trio in A major is a work that shows the composer at his most genial and his most inventive. Many of his trios are essentially piano sonatas with accompaniment, but in this work the violin and cello are much more important participants in the ensemble right from the start. After the three arresting chords that open the first movement, Haydn introduces an idea that is taken up in imitation by all three instruments. A few years later, Haydn was to use an almost identical opening gesture to begin one of his greatest string quartets, the G major Quartet Op.76 No.1. The combination of contrapuntal writing – usually thought of as ‘learned’ – with a wonderfully genial spirit makes for a potent mixture in the first movement. The central development section contains some extraordinary harmonic surprises, as fragments of the opening idea are taken into some remote keys. The lilting slow movement – in a minor key – is a wistful interlude that leads directly into a ‘gypsy’ style finale full of syncopations, accents off the main beats, and a driving rhythmic energy, all based on a single theme. Near the end Haydn enjoys a brief excursion into some remote keys, before bringing the movement to a rousing close.  

It’s easy to underestimate Haydn’s trios: more than forty of them survive but relatively few of these are played regularly. This A major Trio is an outstanding example: it’s not only melodically rich but endlessly inventive. It was first published in London by Longman and Broderip in 1794 as one of a set of ‘Three Sonatas’ for piano with accompaniment for violin and cello. In Amsterdam the same year, the firm of J.J. Hummel issued it as one of ‘Three Grand Trios’ – an interesting reflection of what would appeal to different national markets, but in the case of this ebullient little masterpiece the Amsterdam title seems much more appropriate.  

Nigel Simeone 

In 1875, while working on Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write a set of twelve piano pieces which were published in monthly instalments by the St Petersburg magazine Nuvellist. In November 1875, Tchaikovksy wrote to the magazine’s editor Nicolay Bernard to thank him for the commission, adding that he was ‘grateful for your courtesy and readiness to pay me such a high fee.’ And in its December issue the magazine announced that ‘Our celebrated composer P. I. Tchaikovsky has promised the editor of Nuvellist, that he will contribute to next year’s issues a whole series of his piano compositions, specially written for our journal, the character of which will correspond entirely to the titles of the pieces, and the month in which they will be published in the journal.’ The twelve pieces were composed between December 1875 and the summer of 1876. 

The composer and pianist Alexander Goedicke – a native of Moscow, student at the Conservatoire there and winner of the Anton Rubinstein Competition in 1900 – made this arrangement of The Seasons for piano trio which is particularly successful: introducing the colours of string instruments while maintaining the intimate character of Tchaikovsky’s original pieces. 

© Nigel Simeone 

Pezzo elegiaco (Moderato assai. Allegro giusto) 
Tema con variazioni
Andante con moto
Variazioni
Finale e coda 
 

Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio is subtitled ‘to the memory of a great artist’: a memorial to the composer’s friend and mentor Nicolai Rubinstein who died in 1881. The choice of ensemble for this piece in his memory was surprising since a year earlier Tchaikovsky had told his patron Nazdezhda von Meck, that “to my ears the acoustic combination of piano with violin or cello solo is completely incompatible. In this sonority the instruments seem to repel one another, and I assure you that any kind of trio or sonata with piano or cello is absolute torture for me.” Clearly he changed his mind, since he started work on a trio that was conceived on a positively epic scale. A year later he completed the work in Rome on 9 February 1882. 

It is an expansive lamentation in two long movements. The first, ‘Elegiac piece’, is a large sonata-form that opens with the theme that is to dominate the whole work. The second movement is an extended set of variations on a folk tune. Each of the variations is a kind of character piece, by turns elegant, charming, robustly energetic and darkly moving – at the close the music returns to a mood of despair as the opening theme returns in octaves on the violin and cello before its final transformation into a funeral march.  

© Nigel Simeone