Kodaly 4tet - Haydn: String Quartets [CD]

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Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)String Quartets Op. 2, Nos. 3 and 5String Quartets Op. 3, Nos. 1 and 2 (attrib. Hoffstetter)The four works on this CD no longer form part of the accepted canon of Haydn’s string quartets. The two works from Op. 2 are spurious arrangements of authentic Haydn works and the Op. 3 quartets are now widely believed to be the work of Pater Romanus Hoffstetter. That all four works circulated as genuine string quartets by Haydn for nearly two centuries is one of many proofs of his phenomenal contemporary popularity as a composer of chamber music. Haydn’s earliest compositions for string quartet rank among the most historically significant instrumental works of all time. With these works, composed to the best of our knowledge in the late 1750s, he created an entirely new genre and one which would occupy a central place in the musical thinking of composers through to the present day. According to Haydn’s own account, as related by his early biographer Griesinger, a '…purely coincidental circumstance led him to try his hand at the composition of quartets. A Baron Fürnberg had an estate in Weinzierl, several stages from Vienna; and from time to time he invited his parish priest, his estates’ manager, Haydn and Albrechtsberger (a brother of the well-known contrapuntist, who played the violoncello) in order to have a little music. Fürnberg asked Haydn to write something that could be played by these friends of the Art. Haydn who was then eighteen [sic] years old, accepted the proposal, and so originated his first Quartet which, immediately upon its appearance, received such uncommon applause as to encourage him to continue in this genre'. Although Griesinger was wrong in assigning the first quartet to around 1750 — 1757 seems more likely given the other evidence — the circumstances of the work’s composition and reception seem quite plausible and in the course of the next year or so Haydn composed at least another nine or ten works for string quartet. The Parisian publisher La Chevardière issued two sets of six string quartets by Haydn in 1764. Of these works, Op. 1 No. 5 was a symphony (and is now referred to as ‘Symphony A’) and Op. 2 Nos 3 and 5 have since been identified as spurious arrangements of the Cassations in E flat (Hob.II.21) and D (Hob.II.22); the original versions of both are scored for horns and strings. Haydn played no rôle at all in the publication of these works. A great number of manuscript copies of the early quartets were in circulation and La Chevardière based his editions on sources of unknown provenance. The inclusion of the two cassations among the authentic quartets is understandable given the publisher’s unfamiliarity with Haydn’s music and the stylistic and structural similarities between the two genres. With their bright, cheerful opening movements, two minuets framing an elegant, lyrical slow movement, and racy finales,

Cassation in E flat major arr. for String Quartet as op. 2 no. 3

Cassation in D major arr. for String Quartet as op. 2 no. 5

String quartet in E major, op. 3 no. 1 (attrib. Romanus Hoffstetter)

String quartet in C major, op. 3 no. 2 (attrib. Romanus Hoffstetter)