Trio Haris (Ránki – Stark – Devich) | Haydn and Saint-Saëns

Program:
Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio in C major,, Hob. XV:27
Joseph Haydn:  Piano Trio in E-flat major, Hob. XV:29
Camille Saint-Saëns: Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 92

Featuring:
János Mátyás Stark – violin
Gergely Devich – cello
Fülöp Ránki – piano

Two highly productive and innovative composers come together in Trio Haris's program on November 3. Haydn was the first prominent composer in the genre of piano trios. The two works featured in this program are part of a collection of three trios. The collection is dedicated to Therese Jansen-Bartolucci, the outstanding pianist to whom Haydn, having become acquainted with fortepianos made in England, addressed his two most virtuosic piano sonatas, the London Sonata in C major (Hob. XVI:50) and the Sonata in E-flat major (Hob. XVI:52), which are in the same key as these two trios. The correspondingly richly elaborated piano part is embedded in a finely crafted chamber texture. Haydn's flashes of surprises come through at different levels, in the form of unexpected harmonic turns and register changes in relaxed, touched, or even astonished states, as well as in the key of the slow movements of both works, which are far from the outer movements, and in the flexible and creative treatment of form.

This unconventional approach is also characteristic of Saint-Saëns's large-scale Trio in E minor. The symmetrically arranged five movements are framed by a broad, serious overture and a dark-toned finale. The Andante con moto, which takes place at the heart of the composition and could be described as A flat major, but constantly wanders between keys, is linked to the corner movements by a scherzo based on a Basque dance rhythm, the zortziko with its pulsating quintuplets, and a mazurka-like intermezzo with an airy lightness.