Joseph Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 76, Nos 1-3 [Chiaroscuro Quartet] [Bis: BIS23 [Audio CD]

Description

The Chiaroscuro Quartet made their first appearance on BIS with acclaimed recordings of Joseph Haydns Sun Quartets, Op. 20, described in The Strad as period-instrument performances of the utmost subtlety and refinement. The Op. 20 quartets are widely regarded as a mile-stone in the history of the genre. When Chiaroscuros now return to Haydn, it is with his last complete set of quartets, begun in 1796 when he was 64 years old. The Six String Quartets, Op. 76, form one of the most renowned of Haydn’s sets of quartets, and carry the stamp of their maker: No other set of eighteenth-century string quartets is so diverse, or so unconcerned with the norms of the time. In the words of Haydns friend and contemporary Charles Burney they are full of invention, fire, good taste and new effects. On the present disc, the first of two, we hear the first three quartets, including the Fifths quartet (No. 2) so named after the falling perfect fifths with which it begins. The most famous of the set – and possibly of all Haydn quartets is No. 3, however: the Emperor quartet with its second movement: a set of variations on the Kaiserlied which Haydn had recently composed to the greater glory of the Austrian Emperor Franz II.