Haydn Sacd

The early Beethoven, the late Haydn… Where is the borderline between these 2 – what is the connection, what differentiates them? Although their ways of life & characters were clearly different, both masters lived in a time during which it was as important to obey the prescribed musical rules as it was to connect the artists intellect with his creativity, personality, & emotional world.

We often think of Haydn as a composer of symphonies, string quartets and piano sonatas – that is, of instrumental music in various forms. But in fact, he probably wrote as much vocal music, in a variety of genres. The late, great oratorios are still justly famous – The Creation and The Seasons – but he also composed twelve large-scale Masses, a number of cantatas and other sacred works, as well as songs, concert arias and as many as 21 operas and Singspiele. Some of these have been lost, but the majority still exist in more or less complete form. The earliest of these is Acide, the fragment of an opera composed for the celebrations of the wedding of Count Anton Esterházy and Countess Maria Theresia Erdödy, and performed at the Esterházy residence at Eisenstadt on 11th January 1763.

With this debut album of three Haydn string quartets, the Amsterdam String Quartet bursts successfully into the recording. The ensemble performs on period instruments, specializing in works composed circa 1762 to 1847. There's nothing dainty or timid about these instruments or its approach to them. In fact, the sound is more energetic and vital than many other ensembles are able to achieve on modern instruments.

This is the second half of a traversal of Haydn's Op. 20 quartets by the Chiaroscuro Quartet, and if you're after just one you can take your pick: both albums feature playing of a very high standard. But really the nature of the set demands hearing both: from the fugal finale of the String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5, to the florid slow movements, to the multifarious sonata-allegros, the quartets of Op. 20 are experimental and even radical.