AFTER HE RESIGNED from his twenty-nine-year tenure as Kapellmeister to the Esterházy family, Haydn enjoyed two extensive residencies in London at the invitation of the impresario Johann Peter Salomon. Time in this brilliant musical capital stylistically broadened Haydn, who now began to write with bolder harmonies and brighter sonorities. Since Haydn did much of his composing at the keyboard, he especially appreciated the resonance of the English grand piano, far more powerful than his thinly stringed Viennese instrument. Perhaps inspired by this new sonority, Haydn wrote the ten most esteemed of his thirty-one piano trios during and soon after his London sojourns.

Written during the final weeks of his second London visit, the G Major Piano Trio (1795) is the second of a set of three he dedicated to his London piano student Rebecca Schroeter, widow of the composer Johann Schroeter and a platonic love interest for Haydn. Rebecca was a frequent dinner companion for Haydn, who later wrote that he “would have married her very easily” if he had been free at the time—a reference to his unhappy marriage in Vienna.

The G Major Piano Trio, nicknamed “Gypsy” because of its beguiling finale “in the Hungarian style,” is perhaps the most popular of Haydn’s piano trios. The opening movement is structured as a set of variations on a graceful theme; each statement is repeated to create a leisurely succession of phrases. An extensive G minor section foreshadows similar harmonic alternations in the finale. The Poco andante (E major), cast in three-part song form, develops with expressive chromaticism in its central section—an area much admired by Pablo Casals, who would assume the poignant violin line for his cello at the repeat.

The main theme of the Presto finale is based on the Hungarian Verbunkos, a vigorous dance performed by military recruiters. Broad sections with profusions of Magyar-inspired ideas alternate to create an expansive rondo form with contrasting G major and G minor areas. Colorful string effects such as left hand pizzicato suggest improvisatory gypsy style. At the final return of the opening theme a steady crescendo leads to an exuberant conclusion.

BORN INTO A MUSICAL FAMILY, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor Anton Arensky studied composition with the brilliant tonal colorist Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After graduation, he was appointed Professor of Composition at the Moscow Conservatory, where his notable pupils included Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Glière. His colleague Tchaikovsky became his friend and mentor. After an important but brief period as Director of the Imperial Chapel, Arensky retired at age 40 with a generous pension and planned to devote his life to concertizing and composition. Unfortunately, his alcoholism led to a fatal case of tuberculosis, and he died at age 45. Appalled at the waste of tremendous gifts, Rimsky-Korsakov predicted that Arensky would soon be forgotten; but his reputation as an important Russian late Romantic remained secure. Arensky is now remembered for a small number of works, several of which are miniatures, and his significant pedagogical influence.

One of imperial Russia’s more eclectic composers, Arensky was most strongly influenced by Europe’s leading romantic composers, particularly Chopin and Mendelssohn. Arensky’s works all reveal fluent technique, singing melodic lines, and an affinity for unusual rhythmic patterns. A keen sense of instrumental color pervades his work.

Arensky wrote his D minor Trio, Opus 32 (1894) in memory of his cellist friend Karl Davidov, whom Tchaikovsky called “The Czar of Cellists.” Davidov, who had died five years earlier, established the expressively intense Russian school of cello playing, and Arensky pays him tribute in the numerous songful passages for cello. Davidov’s legendary performances were enhanced by his Golden Age Stradivarius, willed to him by Count Mathieu Wielhorsky, who procured the instrument through the exchange of his Guarneri cello, 40,000 francs, and the handsomest horse in his stables.

A soulful cello solo introduces the opening Allegro moderato, a substantial sonata form movement that inventively develops three lyrical themes. The movement concludes with a reflective coda (Adagio) that reprises the cello’s opening idea. The Scherzo’s piquant opening theme, stated by the strings, is enlivened by spiccato bowing (light bounces off the strings). Piano runs offer a glittering accompaniment. Arensky was fond of dance, and the trio section features a leisurely waltz.

The Elegia (G minor) begins with a somber muted statement in the cello against quiet detached chords in the piano; a reflective dialogue between the violin and cello follows. A piano interlude in the major-key central section evokes peaceful memories. Two contrasting ideas are developed in the dramatic rondo finale. Motives from both the first movement’s opening statement and the Elegia return as a reprise.

Notes by Nancy Monsman