Day 92: Haydn’s First String Quartets

HaydnCD92What interests me most about today’s string quartets is that Haydn was just 30 to 32 years of age when he composed them.

They were the first string quartets he wrote.

Will I hear a freshman string quartet writer? Will I hear compositions that lack confidence, seem tentative?

Or will these be like everything else I’ve heard to date – masterful?

Time – precisely 69 minutes and 22 seconds – will tell.

As I note in the quotations below, these string quartets were composed with five movements each.

Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 1 in B Flat (for some reason, nicknamed “La Chasse”)

Overall impressions: Movement I began slowly and stately. No real surprises. Movement II (“Minuet – Minuet secondo”) featured an unexpected pizzicato at about the 1:42 mark, right in the middle of the movement until about 2/3 of the way into it (around the 3:00 minute). Then it totally becomes the string quartet version of Haydn Symphony No. 73 in D “La Chasse” that I wrote about on October 22nd, right down to the aforementioned pizzicato portions.

This is interesting. I just realized that Haydn’s Symphony No. 73 in D was written in 1782. Haydn was 50. Yet, his String Quartet Op. 1 No. 1 was composed in 1762 when he was 30. So the string quartet preceded the symphony by two decades. I thought it was the other way around – that Haydn wrote a “simpler” version of his symphony for his first string quartet. Not so.

Next to the pizzicato of Movement II, Movement V (“Finale: Presto”) is my favorite. It’s peppy. Sounds very “Classical.”

Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 2 in E Flat

Overall impressions: “Allegro molto” opens Op. 1 No. 2. It’s nice, somewhat clever, with its swirling violins. Movement II (“Minuet”), though, is sweeter. It sounds gentle, like a minuet written for a child, almost as a lullaby. At t he 1:28 mark, it steps up and becomes something a little zippier, with one of the violins keeping up a rapid da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da underneath the other instruments.

Pizzicato returns in No. 2 at around the 1:40 mark of Movement III (“Adagio”). From about 1:40 to about 1:50, it sounds like all of the instruments are playing pizzicato. It’s a cool effect. At the 3:04 mark, they all do it again.

Once again, it’s Movement V (“Finale: Presto”) that shakes the cobwebs off with a double-time performance that sounds like a hummingbird that can’t seem to sit still.

Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 3 in D

Overall impressions: Movement I (“Adagio”) opens slowly, ponderously, like an old man shuffling ahead of you in a store. It’s not that aggravating. But it’s close. I kept waiting for something to break out, to happen. Give me a pizzicato! The “old man” steps it up in Movement II (“Menuet”), and there’s my pizzicato again at the 1:01 mark.

So far, every string quartet (1, 2, 3 of Op. 1) featured a pizzicato passage. I wonder if that was standard procedure for the time? Movement III (“Scherzo: Presto”) peps it up considerably. If this were the “old man” of Movement I, he’d be sprinting in Movement III.

Once again, it’s Movement V (“Presto”) that intrigues me the most. I like hearing a zippy string quartet because I can just picture the musicians, brows furrowed, arms rapidly passing to and fro, the conductor (if there is one), gesturing wildly.

Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 4 in G

Overall impressions: Movement I of No. 4 starts with “Presto,” but one less Presto-y than the one that closed No. 3. Movement II (“Minuet”) is really nice. The instruments complement one another well. Another rapid-fire “Presto” (Movement V) closes this string quartet, which – overall – had a kind of bouncy, friendly sound to it.

I found this article about Haydn’s first string quartets:

The 12 (some sources say 10) early quartets op.1 and op.2 are distinguished from the rest of his quartets by a five-movement form. Eight of these symmetrical with slow movements surrounded by minuets with trios and beginning and ending fast movements. There is no trace of continuo and the texture is generally homophonic. The thematice material is based on broken chord patterns. Upper voices predominate.

I also found another article about this era of Haydn’s life, and his Op. 1 and Op. 2 string quartets. I have no idea what this is I’m quoting from. It’s a pdf I found online here:

Many years later, Haydn told his biographer the story of how, in 1750, when he was 18, Freiherr von Fürnberg asked him to provide music for four musicians playing two violins, viola, and cello. More likely, this happened around 1757 to 1760, when he was 25 to 28, not 18. The quartets that he wrote in response to this request may or may not have been the first true string quartets; the dates of other possible early quartets are not known with enough certainty. They proved popular and circulated in manuscript in Austria and beyond. Eventually they found their way to Paris, Amsterdam, and London. Nine were collected and published, starting in 1764, in two sets of six each (filled out with the string parts of a symphony and two sextets for strings and horns). These sets are now known as Opus 1 and Opus 2 and they made Haydn famous throughout Europe without his realizing it. They are considered to be the oldest works by a known composer that have been in performance continuously from the day they first appeared to the present.

The Amsterdam publications included a tenth quartet, replacing the symphony Op. 1 No. 5, but it was missing in the versions that later became standard. It wasn’t until the 1930’s that it was rediscovered and published as Op. 0.

Here’s what I listened to this morning (minus Op. 1 No. 1, which I couldn’t find on YouTube):

Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 2 in E Flat

Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 3 in D

Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 4 in G

As I have in previous posts, I can’t forget to introduce the members of the Buchberger Quartet (their site is in German):

Hubert Buchberger violin
Julia Greve violin
Joachim Etzel viola
Helmut Sohler cello

The other players in the quartet do not have their own web sites, apparently. So, no link to them. Sorry.

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