Haydn: Piano Trio in G major, “Gypsy” HOB V/25
Haydn wrote his G major “Gypsy” Piano Trio during the second of his two highly productive visits to London in the early 1790s, which together bore his 12 “London” symphonies (Nos. 93-104) and six of his piano trios (No. 35-40). Haydn’s time in London also kindled a romantic relationship with Rebecca Schroeter, a wealthy amateur musician and the dedicatee of this work. Perhaps Haydn’s most popular contribution to the genre, the G major Trio represents one of the earliest examples of a classical composer parroting the Hungarian folk idiom, and prefigured the 19th-century fascination with gypsy music seen in the works of Brahms and Liszt. Having lived and worked at the Esterhazá palace in rural Hungary since the 1760s, Haydn would surely have been exposed to Hungarian vernacular styles by itinerant gypsy bands who played there. In the G major Trio, Haydn reserved the gypsy style for the last movement Rondo all’Ongerese, which features at each of its minore sections authentic verbunkos (recruiting dance) themes, probably quoted from memory by the composer. In retrospect, we realize the breakneck finale also fulfills the anticipated excitement promised by the more reserved movements that precede it: an unhurried, untroubled Andante variations set, and a swaying lullaby as the middle movement.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival
Haydn wrote his G major “Gypsy” Piano Trio during the second of his two highly productive visits to London in the early 1790s, which together bore his 12 “London” symphonies (Nos. 93-104) and six of his piano trios (No. 35-40). Haydn’s time in London also kindled a romantic relationship with Rebecca Schroeter, a wealthy amateur musician and the dedicatee of this work. Perhaps Haydn’s most popular contribution to the genre, the G major Trio represents one of the earliest examples of a classical composer parroting the Hungarian folk idiom, and prefigured the 19th-century fascination with gypsy music seen in the works of Brahms and Liszt. Having lived and worked at the Esterhazá palace in rural Hungary since the 1760s, Haydn would surely have been exposed to Hungarian vernacular styles by itinerant gypsy bands who played there. In the G major Trio, Haydn reserved the gypsy style for the last movement Rondo all’Ongerese, which features at each of its minore sections authentic verbunkos (recruiting dance) themes, probably quoted from memory by the composer. In retrospect, we realize the breakneck finale also fulfills the anticipated excitement promised by the more reserved movements that precede it: an unhurried, untroubled Andante variations set, and a swaying lullaby as the middle movement.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival