Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Piano Trio No. 39 in G major, Hob. XV:25 (1795) 00:00 - Andante 05:56 - Poco adagio 11:01 - Rondo all'Ongarese (Rondo 'in the Gypsy style'). Presto Trio Wanderer: Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian (violin), Raphaël Pidoux (violoncello), & Vincent Coq (piano) "The Trio No. 39 in G major (Hob. XV:25), one of the three dedicated to Rebecca Schroeter, has always been Haydn's most popular work in the medium, graced with the position of 'No. 1' in the nineteenth-century Breitkopf & Härtel edition, and the object of one of the most famous of all chamber music recordings, the 78s made in 1927 by the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio. It owes its disproportionate fame (excellent work though it is) to its finale, called 'Rondo, in the Gypsies' stile' in the original Longman and Broderip edition. This is one of the earliest and most vivid examples of what was called the 'style hongrois', the representation in classical pieces of 'romungro' (Hungarian gypsy) music, with its characteristic 'exotic' ornaments, tonic drone, stamping rhythms and so on, as they are to be found later in the Hungarian Dances of Brahms and the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies. Such music was doubtless familiar to Haydn, living as he had at Esterháza where travelling romungro bands must have appeared frequently; and in point of fact the themes of the two sections in the minor, where the ethnic character is most pronounced, have been shown to be authentic 'verbunkos' which the composer was probably quoting from memory. The effect on English or German performers and audiences as yet unused to the style, though, must have been electrifying; and we realize in retrospect that this thrilling 'Presto' finale has been carefully prepared by the two previous movements, both slow, and both of them (most unusually for a Classical trio) eschewing the cumulative excitement of sonata form, with a set of variations on a typically 'innocent' theme followed by a serene 'Poco adagio' which features a particularly lovely violin solo in its middle section." - Charles Johnston