Beamish / Haydn / Trio Gaspard - Haydn: Piano Trios, Vol. 4 [CD]

Trio Gaspard continues it's acclaimed series of Haydn Trios with this programme of middle and later quartets, designed to be played (and enjoyed) as a standalone programme. As with the previous volumes, the trio include the world premier recording of a piece commissioned to compliment the Haydn's work - in this instance, Trance, by Sally Beamish. The performers note: we should like to highlight just a few examples of the ways in which the inventiveness of his musical materials continues to astound us. The Trio in B flat major for example, opens with a striking combination of opposites: a legato falling scale beginning from what was the highest note on Haydn's piano (F) and a rising arpeggio in short staccato notes climbing up from the bass. After two bars the elements swap places, the staccato arpeggio rising up in the right hand of the piano, while the legato elements continue in the bass. Together, these four bars form a perfectly balanced opening phrase. The character of this beginning feels completely natural and beguilingly elegant, yet it already contains all the main elements out of which Haydn goes on expertly to craft the rest of the movement. In the second movement of this trio, the song-like theme at the beginning is presented with an accompanying bass line. However, Haydn instructs the pianist to play both lines with 'the left hand alone' - a seeming finger-twister which actually lies surprisingly comfortably in the hand. It is an audacious idea and pianistically unique in Haydn's keyboard music.