Excellent Performances of Four of Haydn's Piano Trios
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 05/23/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Haydn wrote piano trios primarily for private performance -- amateurs in Haydn's time must have been more skilled than most present-day amateurs -- and he wrote somewhere between 35 and 45 trios; some have been claimed to be spurious so the actual number is not clear. They are almost never played in concert today, which is a shame because there is some glorious music here. I became acquainted with most of them many years ago when the Beaux Arts Trio recorded them. And then I played a number of them with friends. Those that were published carried the description 'clavier sonata with violin and cello accompaniment' and indeed there is no question that the piano has the leading role in these works, although the later ones tend to have slightly more independent parts for the strings; in the earlier trios the strings usually simply double lines occurring in the piano part. And the trios on this recording come, with one exception, late in the series.
Trio Opus 8, a German group who have been together since the 1980s but whom I'd never heard of before, consists of pianist Michael Hauber, violinist Eckhard Fischer, and cellist Mario de Secondi. I presume their name 'Opus 8' honors one of the most magnificent of all piano trios, Brahms's Trio in B Major, Op. 8. They are skilled and very musical players. They are given lifelike recorded sound. And true to the intent of Haydn's scores, the piano is slightly in the acoustic forefront. This might, I suppose, bother some listeners but I rather liked the balance. (But then I'm a pianist.)
I certainly won't be giving away my old Beaux Arts recordings, but this one is a keeper, too.
Scott Morrison"
