Haydn's Pianoforte Trios

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 214, 30 July 1943, Page 6

Haydn's Pianoforte Trios

A Note By Frederick Page F Mozart’s Trios for Piano, Violin and ’Cello are not very often played still less so are those of Haydn, There are 31 of these, of which but four are available on records, One. is very lucky if one hears four of Haydn’s trios played in public in a lifetime, but, as Professor Tovey was fond of pointing out, a concert hall is not the only place in which one may hear music, These trios of Haydn’s are perhaps ideally realised in some sort of intimate music-making. Private patrons of music could secure their performance for themselves and their friends by booking local musicians to play to them, though, so far as I know, they do not, Fortunately, the National Broadcasting Service will step in on alternate Monday evenings, beginning at 9.20 on August 2, to allow listeners-in*to 3YA to overhear Nos. 1-6 of Haydn’s trios, Haydn published an edition of his trios in 1799 with the title "Sonatas for the Pianoforte, with Violin and ‘Cello Accompaniment." No wonder that string players have fought shy of them! Proper trios are those written by Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak, Smetana and Co., and poor old Haydn obviously does not know his business. But, Haydn has a way with him, and it may be that if we listen to these trios on their own terms, we will recognise his invention, his sheer goodness of sound, his continuing praise.