Can one imagine a better teacher of chamber music composition than Joseph Haydn? The Austrian Joseph Pleyel assimilated his teacher’s skill so well that his galant and substantial Piano Trios in C major and F major were initially attributed to the great master (and assigned the catalogue numbers Hob. XV:3 and Hob. XV:4). Pleyel’s compositions enjoyed great popularity and found wide dissemination in his day. Alongside symphonies and string quartets, his nearly fifty piano trios are a particular high-point in his oeuvre. Our Urtext edition here presents two brilliant examples.
Content/Details
- Trio C major Hob. XV:3
- Trio F major Hob. XV:4
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About the composer

Ignaz Pleyel
A composer, piano builder, and music publisher. With his 41 symphonies, around 80 string quartets, six symphonies concertantes, piano trios, and two operas (among other works) he left behind an extensive oeuvre. During his lifetime he made a name for himself as a music publisher, while the innovative instruments of the Pleyel piano manufacturing company were valued by figures such as Chopin and Rossini.
1757 | Born in Ruppersthal near Vienna on June 18. He received his earliest musical education in Vienna from Johann Baptist Vanhal. |
around 1772 | Count Ladislaus Erdődy provides financial patronage for five years of study with Joseph Haydn, as well as for lodging in Haydn’s home. An amicable relationship develops between Haydn and Pleyel. |
around 1780 | He tours through Italy. For King Ferdinand IV of Naples he composes works for lira organizzata. |
1785 | On May 30, his opera “Ifigenia in Aulide” is premiered at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. He becomes music director at Strasbourg Cathedral. |
1787–95 | Most of his works are composed in Strasbourg. With the music director of the Temple Neuf, Johann Philipp Schönfeld, he inaugurates the Concerts Pleyel-Schönfeld. |
1791–92 | Following the invitation of Wilhelm Cramer to go to London, he becomes director of the Professional Concerts there. This enables performance of twelve of his own symphonies. |
after 1796 | He founds a music publishing house in Paris with his brother-in-law Jean-Daniel Schäffer, and publishes some 4,000 works by important contemporaries such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, and Muzio Clementi. |
1807 | He founds the piano manufacturer Pleyel et Cie. |
1824 | His son Camille takes over the company. |
1831 | Dies in Paris on November 14. |