Only quite recently have period-instrument performers given much attention, as far as recording is concerned, to the Haydn piano trios. There have in fact been a couple of really first-rate CDs of groups of them in the last few months, and if this latest addition isn't in quite the same bracket it still gives a modicum of pleasure. I am not too happy about the actual sound from the fortepiano, which has a certain tinniness, especially at forte, and a rather hollow quality; it lacks the clean, crisp, bright tone that can lend clarity and justness of balance in the classical chamber repertory.
The players themselves do best in the more directly expressive music. I particularly enjoyed the Adagio that opens No. 9, where their tender phrasing nicely catches the poetic quality of the piece; and they are always attentive to changes of texture and their meaning, and to the broader shaping of a section. There are often happy details of timing, too, notably in the first movement of No. 25 (though in the finale here their evident enthusiasm leads them into allowing the gipsy effects to become rather exaggerated and coarse). In some of the more abstract invention (the first movement of No. 10, for example), they don't seem to find a way of handling the music very naturally; the same applies in parts of No. 11, and they seem unable to make parts of No. 12 very interesting.
In short, for all the well-turned detail, there is some want of imagination and vitality here. Also, I might mention, there are a number of little textual details that seem to be slightly awry. An acceptable CD for anyone wanting these trios on period instruments, but not an outstanding one. R1 '9506053'