- Allegro
- Andante o più tosto Allegretto
- Menuetto
- Finale. Vivace assai
Of humble origins, Franz Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, near Vienna, on 31 March 1732. When eight years old he was accepted into the choir school of Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he received his only formal education. Dismissed from the choir at the age of seventeen, when his voice broke, he spent the next several years as a struggling freelance musician. In 1755 Haydn was engaged briefly by Baron Karl Josef von Fürnberg, for whom he apparently composed his first string quartets. Haydn's marriage in 1760 to Maria Anna Keller proved to be unhappy. The turning point in Haydn's fortunes came in 1761, when he was appointed assistant music director to Prince Pál Antal Esterházy; a year later he became full director. As Kapellmeister, Haydn served under the patronage of three successive princes of the Esterházy family. The second of these, Pál Antal's brother, Prince Miklós József Esterházy, was an ardent, cultivated music lover who could boast a musical establishment second to none, the management of which made immense demands on its director.
Although he frequently regretted the burdens of his job and the isolation of Esterháza, Haydn's position was enviable by 18th century standards. One remarkable aspect of his contract after 1779 was the freedom to sell his music to publishers and to accept commissions. As a result, much of Haydn's work in the 1780s reached beyond the guests at Esterháza to a far wider audience, and his fame spread accordingly.
Haydn was prolific in nearly all genres, vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular. Haydn's productivity is matched by his inexhaustible originality. More than one hundred symphonies and almost eighty string quartets that span his career document a growth from the easy elegance suitable for the home music making to the public virtuosity of his late works. His contemporaries admired his innovative manner of turning a simple tune or motive into unexpectedly complex developments. Dramatic surprise, often turned to humorous effect, is characteristic of his style, as is a fondness for folk-like melodies.
Haydn's final set of six string quartets (op 76) were written after the Esterháza Court Orchestra was disbanded and the composer was living in Vienna. These quartets were commissioned by Count Erdödy and show the ever-creative Haydn striking out in new directions. The second of this set, in D-minor, begins with a sequence of falling fifths that permeates the first movement and gives the piece its alternative title, Quintenquartett ("Fifths" Quartet). Despite this name, it is the interval of the octave that provides the central musical argument of the Menuetto. The unusually harsh sound of the open octaves has resulted in references to this movement as the "Witches Canon."
- Angelo Frascarelli (Violin)
- Lilajane Frascarelli (Violin)
- William Shapiro (Viola)
- Ingrid Porter (Violoncello)
credit: Program notes for the Willow Pond String Quartet 1997 concert, posted here.