Quartet in D major 76/5
Allegretto-Allegro
Largo Cantabile e Mesto
Menuetto
Presto
Haydn’s chamber music could be said to be the victim of its own success. Huge lists of music languish unplayed –some, like the 126 trios for Baryton, viola and bass, because the instrument for which they were written has vanished from musical life, yet more often, as with the majority of his 61 keyboard sonatas, and 29 piano trios, because the sheer number of works has prevented more than a handful from becoming well-known. This seems to have been the case with the string quartets. At current reckoning, Haydn wrote some 68 surviving string quartets, of which 46 have been described by the violinist and scholar Hans Keller as ‘absolutely flawless, consistently original master-quartets, each a multi-dimensional contrast to any of the others’. Faced with this embarrassment of riches, it’s hardly surprising that players and audiences have consistently stuck with a select group of ‘celebrated’ quartets, most often with memorable names-the "Joke"(op 33/2), the "Lark" (op 64/5), the "Fifths", "Emperor" and "Sunrise" (op 76/2-4), and all too few others. Yet every one of Haydn’s mature quartets is a masterpiece as perfect in form and inspiration, as brilliantly original, as any of these - or any other great quartet, whether by Beethoven, Schubert or even Mozart. Such an achievement is without parallel in music-Haydn’s artistic development was such that, even as he reaped the benefit of decades of technical experience, his inspiration grew still fresher and more youthful.
Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the Opus 76 string quartets, a set of six works written between 1796 and 1799 and dedicated to Count Joseph Erdödy. The Opus 76 quartets are the culmination of the classical string quartet and of the numerous phases in Haydn’s artistic development. They combine to perfection the intimate dialogue and wit of the Opus 33 quartets, the thematic rigour and instrumental virtuosity of the Opus 50, 54, 55 and 64 quartets(written for the violinist Johann Tost) and the symphonic sweep and drama of the Opus 71 and 74 sets, written with a view to public performance in London-and without any audible effort. Of the set, Nos. 2, 3and 4, the three "named" quartets, are regulars of the concert scene, but had the Opus 76 set been the only Haydn quartets to nave survived into our time, there can be no doubt that each one of the six would be as popular and as famous.
Op.76/5 shows Haydn continuing to explore form and structure while delving ever further into his depth of emotional experience. A graceful Allegretto opens the quartet- a series of inventive and playful variations on a siciliano- like theme, culminating in a scurrying Allegro. It is unusual for Haydn to open a mature quartet without a broad sonata-form movement, but we realise why as the great largo unfolds. This F# major movement used to be known to musicians as the "Churchyard" Largo, due to the large number of "crosses"(sharps) in its key signature, and it may have been that this difficult key was chosen by Haydn to elicit the highest level of concentration from his players-certainly, this great, slowly unfurling movement has the air of a profound meditation. Prefiguring Bruckner, it is one of Haydn’s most solemn and inspired creations; to have preceded it with a fully-worked sonata first movement would have unbalanced the whole quartet. A characteristically vigorous minuet frames a minor-key trio, to which the ‘cello gives a darker colour. The finale opens with the kind of flourish more usually heard as the final notes of a movement; a typically Haydnesque touch which sets the mood - and pace - for one of the most energetically rustic movements in all chamber music. Fragments of melodies, many of them very like Slovene folk –dances, fly by with a dash and rhythmic energy which anticipates Bartók; in a tightly controlled sonata- form movement. At the peak of his powers, Haydn could effortlessly attain both formal perfection and total freedom of imagination.
R. G. Bratby
Copyright Classical Notes.co.uk 2000
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