Haydn Piano Sonatas and Trios Recommendations

Hamelin is making a good fist of the sonatas and you can't go wrong with the Beaux Arts for the trios, I have on vinyl and CD.

For something special, although not complete you can do worse than listen to Casals, Cortot and Thibaud weaving their magic. Some used to be on EMI and now I think the historic Naxos series has them.

Aside of Hamelin I would recommend Ragna Schirmer, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Yevgeny Sudbin among contemporary performers:

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classi...-205052/hnum/4942704

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classi...n-Vol-5/hnum/3432043

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classi...-323450/hnum/2858464

The Beaux Arts Trio are excellent if you want something different than solo piano.

I have the old complete Philips box set (13 LPs) of the Haydn Trios performed by the Beaux Arts Trio. This is a fantastic set and is available on CD in a budget set (like $45 for 9 CDs).

For the sonatas, Brendel, Schiff, Andsnes, Gould, and Ax are the ones I like. Beaux Arts does it for me for the trios.

Cheers,

BBM

Trios: Beaux Arts on Philips.

Sonatas [complete, plus variations and Seven Last Words]: John McCabe on Decca.

Farmer

Brendel for the sonatas, he's not recorded them all but quite a number. Others have given more virtuosic readings but nobody makes them matter like Brendel. These are late 70s/early 80s recordings. Curious to hear Hamelin in his territory. For individual sonatas, you owe it to yourself to hear Pogorelich's disc at least once. It only takes two sonatas for him to fill a disc...

As for the trio's, I think the Beaux Arts are unchallenged in the field of complete cycles.

Cheers,

EJ

All - Thanks for the recommendations, I will keep you updated on what I will buy and how I like it.....:-)

For a Haydn sonatas series, you should consider Jando on the Naxos label. Not a superstar name maybe, but a superbly played series and with excellent sound quality. Cheap as chips too ! Really, this is highly recommended - I haven't heard better.

..I promised to you guys that I would come back, I bought now the Brendel set, a delight:

I have the Ragna Schirmer discs and really liked them to start with due to the wonderful capture of the sound of the piano where it was recorded. After a few listens recently though, they seem to lack a certain flow and ease which puts me off them now.

The beaux Arts Trio boxset for the Trios is wonderful. I love this set.

I have the brendel set on order and also look forward to listening to it.

Regards,

Mark

I know this is slightly off topic. Early on in his compositional life, Beethoven wrote five pieces for String Trio. These are Opus 3, Opus 8, and the three from Opus 9. They are from a time when LvB was still a bit influenced by Haydn, but these trios are said to be inspired by Mozart's K563. These important and very satisfying pieces are too often overlooked, it seems, simply due to the fact that LvB wrote so many great works for the string quartet. I see these string trios by Beethoven as cousins of the Haydn Piano Trios, even though they are obviously written for a different set of instruments.

When LvB wrote his "Ghost" and "Archduke" Piano Trios, he was already beyond composing his Erioca Symphony and even his Razumovsky String Quartets, so they inhabit a world that is quite a departure from Haydn. But what would one expect?

A listener who enjoys the wonderful Haydn Piano Trios will certainly "get into" the LvB String Trios. The recording I have is by the Grumiaux Trio on Phillips # 456 317-2. I think it's good.

Sorry for rambling...

Cheers,

BB