This is a list of piano trios by Joseph Haydn, including the chronological number assigned by H. C. Robbins Landon and the number they are given in Anthony van Hoboken's catalogue of his works. (Hoboken's listings of Haydn compositions are divided by musical genre, and the piano trios as a category are grouped under the Roman numeral prefix XV.) Haydn's early trios are considered minor works and are seldom played except in the context of complete editions. In contrast, the later trios, starting in the mid-1780s, reflect the composer's full musical maturity and are greatly admired by critics.

The role of the instruments

The piano trios of Haydn are dominated by the piano part. The violin only plays the melody a certain amount of the time, and is often doubled by the piano when it does. The cello part is very much subordinated, usually just doubling the bass line in the piano. Charles Rosen discusses and defends this asymmetry, relating it to the sonority of the instruments of Haydn's day: the piano was fairly weak and "tinkling" in tone, and benefited from the tonal strengthening of other instruments.

Assessment

The dominance of the piano part does not imply that the late trios are not of the highest quality. Rosen devotes an entire chapter of his book The Classical Style to them, focusing on the works from the 1780s and beyond (Nos. 18–27 and 32–45), while also mentioning two of the early ones (Nos. 5 and 17). He notes that Haydn's trios are "along with the Mozart concertos the most brilliant piano works before Beethoven." Gretchen Wheelock refers to the trios as "incredible," adding that "the late works especially are brilliantly virtuosic, exploiting the full idiomatic range of the instrument [i.e., the piano]. They are also among the most harmonically adventurous of his works in any genre, often reaching into remote keys via enharmonic modulation. As such they are challenging essays for both players and listeners."

List of piano trios

Early trios

Later trios

Three trios (H. XV:18–20) dedicated to Princess Maria Anna, wife of Prince Anton Esterházy: Three trios (H. XV:21–23) dedicated to Princess Maria Josepha, wife of Prince Nicholas Esterházy: Three trios (H. XV:24–26) dedicated to Rebecca Schroeter: Two stand-alone trios (H. XV:31, 30): Three trios (H. XV:27–29), known as the "Bartolozzi Trios," dedicated to Theresa Jansen (Bartolozzi):