The programme opened with the well-known Haydn Trio in G Major which is a slight enough work but filled with charm and lyrical gaiety. It is hardly a trio in the form to which we are accustomed, for the cello is very little more than the bass part of the piano. Then again it was written not for the piano but for harpsichord and undoubtedly would be an improvement with that instrument, The piano is not a good accompaniment to strings, the less so m a trio than a quintet. Its timbre is blurred when immediately contrasted with the clarity of violin and cello, while its tuning, being a compromise between mechanical limitations and the harmonic series, is not exactly the same as that of stringed instruments.
The playing of this trio was light end musicianly, suffering only in the tone of the violin and in the fact that the three performers were not as familiar with their music as they might have been. This work depends for its effect on Haydn's melodic faculty and on the ease of performance. It must run smoothly from start to finish; it must be airy and never serious. Maestro Paci, Professor Foa and Mr. Winkler felt this and the result was 20 minutes of enchantment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.