Early Haydn

In his Opus 33 quartets, Haydn embarked on new paths: no more Sturm und Drang, but more space for humor. Number six not only demonstrates the lighter style of these works, but also Haydn’s masterful refinement. Takemitsu’s mysterious A Way a Lone, based on a fragment from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, offers a serious contrast.

Does coincidence exist? The young composer and violinist Joseph Haydn – not yet “Papa”, but rather “puppy” Haydn – played with three random other string players for the Viennese Count Von Fürnberg. The accidental harmony was so pleasing that the count asked Haydn for more repertoire for this combination. In the works that followed, Haydn laid the foundation for the string quartet, the medium that has given us so much beautiful music. In the concert series Early Haydn, the classical beauty of Haydn’s Opus 33 is in the hands of a different quartet every morning.