Piano Trio No. 39 in G Major, Hob.XV:25

Composer: HAYDN, Joseph
  • Three movement work for piano, violin, and cello:
    • Andante
    • Poco adagio
    • Finale. Rondo all’Ongarese (Rondo in the Gypsy style), Presto
  • Published in 1795 in a collection of three piano trios:
    • Piano Trio in D major, Hob.XV:24
    • Piano Trio in G major, Hob.XV:25, “Gypsy”
    • Piano Trio in F-sharp minor, Hob.XV:261
  • Dedicated to Rebecca Schroeter – an amateur musician and widow of the German composer Johann Samuel Schroeter with whom Haydn has a passionate love affair while staying in London.2
    • Regarding Schroeter, Haydn made the following statement to his biographer:
      • “Though I was 60  years old, she was still loving and amiable, and in all likelihood I would have married her if I had been single.”
  • In Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 39, the dominant sonority is in the piano, while the violin and cello act as an accompaniment.
    • The first movement, “Andante,” is a theme and variations.
    • In the second movement, “Poco adagio,” the violin gets to share the melody with the piano.
    • The whirlwind third movement, “Rondo all’Ongarese (Rondo in the Gypsy style),” is where the work as a whole gets it’s nickname.3

Sources

  1. “Piano Trios, Op.82 (Haydn, Joseph),” IMSLP, accessed July 18, 2024, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Trios,_Op.82_(Haydn,_Joseph).
  2. Georg Predota, “Haydn and the Merry Widow: Joseph Haydn and Rebecca Schroeter,” Interlude (2023), accessed July 18, 2024, https://interlude.hk/haydn-and-the-merry-widow-joseph-haydn-and-rebecca-schroeter/.
  3. Steve Lacoste, “Piano Trio No. 39 (“Gypsy”),” L. A. Phil, accessed July 18, 2024, https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/5225/piano-trio-no-39-gypsy.

Cut IDs

25361 41599 48493