HAYDN: Piano Trios Volume 2 (4) – The Florestan Trio – Hyperion CDA67757, 59:41 [Distr. by Harmonia Mundi] *****:
During Haydn’s second and final visit to London in the years 1794-95, and most probably in the year following his return to Vienna, he composed his final series of piano trios. They are more substantial works than his earlier trios. These late trios feature complex harmonic writing, a sophisticated combination of musical texture and melodic development and an expansive and forward looking style that points towards Beethoven who published his own three Op.1 Piano Trios at about the same time. An outgrowth of the late 18th Century trend in domestic music-making that accompanied the introduction of the pianoforte; the trio was originally nothing more than a sonata for piano with an additional violin and cello for color and increased harmonic richness and depth. Haydn’s masterful trios with their expressiveness and their virtuosity required the best musicians to play them and the era of public performance chamber music was born.
The four trios on this superb CD are Haydn’s final ones. They feature some of the composer’s most exhilarating music. Lyrical and expansive melodies that contain folk-like elements, propulsive rhythms bursting with all of the energy of the dance and an astonishing inventiveness that is endlessly entertaining make them some of the finest of all his instrumental works. The fact that they are so little known is both unfortunate and puzzling. If you are unaware of the exceptional nature of these works and have never heard them, this masterful series by one of the finest trios in the world is a superb place to start.
The Florestan Trio with Susan Tomes on piano plays this music with an exemplary delicacy of touch and an astonishing ability to vary its dynamics as if it were an intimate conversation. Tomes has a feathery touch that can assume a gossamer lightness while never attenuating the forcefulness with which Haydn punctuates phrases. This lets the music breathe with a naturalness that is the very essence of Haydn’s artistry. No composer was as down-to-earth while simultaneously exhibiting the most complex compositional skill as Haydn. The Florestan Trio brings this composer to life like few others ever have, making this series of little known masterpieces worthy of entering any enlightened collection of chamber music.
Hyperion’s engineers have produced sound that is warm and crystal clear. A soft reverberant glow surrounds each of the instruments adding to the genial quality of the recording. The music is always immersive and life-like.
— Mike Birman
