When Haydn completed his Six Quartets, Op 50, in 1787, they triggered a Europe-wide bidding war among music publishers. As well they might: this was Haydn’s first full-scale set of quartets since the ...

String Quartet in E flat, HII No.6, Op.1 No.0: 1. Presto String Quartet in E flat, HII No.6, Op.1 No.0: 2. Menuetto String Quartet in E flat, HII No.6, Op.1 No.0: 3 ...

Two years ago, Haydn's bicentenary caused many to take him a lot more seriously. The New Zealand String Quartet swept us through 20 quartet movements from Opus 1 to 103, revealing just why Haydn is ...

Haydn wrote the six quartets of Opp 54 and 55 in 1788, by now a celebrated composer across Europe and still opera Kapellmeister at Esterházy. These period instrument players, whose very name declares ...

In its recitals at Wigmore Hall the Doric String Quartet has shown an affinity for Haydn. The set of six quartets, Op.20, written when the composer was 40, catch him in the white heat of experiment, ...

Is the Bay Area really the center of classical music disruption, the region’s favorite term? Last week offered some reasons to think so. There was the news that the San Francisco Symphony had made Esa ...

In his Op.76 string quartets Haydn shows us six faces, if not more. Each one of the half-dozen quartets ventures daringly in character. We see Haydn the courtly and the rustic, the warm-hearted and ...