Dear Musicians and Music Lovers:
This week, we’re going back to the source – Franz Joseph Haydn and his influential, wonderful, not to mention frabjous string quartets. The Trinity Chamber Players will begin the evening with Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Opus 76 No. 5, a work in which Haydn innovates, plays with us, and perhaps even tells us something about himself.
We explored Haydn somewhat on March 28, when we discussed the influence of his String Quartet in E-Flat major Opus 64, No. 6 on Beethoven and his String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Opus 18 No. 6. On March 14, we also explored Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Opus 64 No. 5, known as The Turkey Buzzard or something like that – oh, yes, The Lark (these names...). The Opus 64 quartets were composed in the twilight of Haydn’s employment at Esterhazy, whereas the Opus 76 quartets were composed after he had been cut loose to remake himself as a musical entrepreneur.
Although Haydn met with immediate success upon leaving Esterhazy, he had ambivalent feelings about leaving the security of steady employment, especially as it might impact his family. He wrote, “This freedom, how sweet it tastes! … I have often sighed for release; now I have it in some measure- even though I am burdened with more work, the knowledge that I am not bound to service makes ample amends for all my toil. And yet, dear though this freedom is to me, I long to be in Esterhazy's service... if only for the sake of my poor family.”
He needn’t have worried. Where Mozart was beset by debt and Beethoven just got by financially, Haydn became quite wealthy. His “family” for whom he worried was considerably larger than his blood relations; in his will, Haydn left money to many tradesmen and common folk with whom he had relations through the years, including many female friends, some of whom may have enjoyed a deeper friendship with him than others. Haydn married when he was young, but it was a childless and, by his account, an unhappy union. It is rumored that both Haydn and his wife found themselves enamored of others from time to time.
The quartet, composed between 1796 and 1797, opens with a movement progressing from what promises to be a simple theme and variations based on a lilting melody, but the textures become more complex as it is transformed into an allegro that charges toward a conclusion that sounds almost symphonic.
The second movement, in the rather strange key of F-sharp major, is the main course of this musical feast. Here, Haydn lets down his guard and allows us a glimpse within during a movement that is quite beautiful and not a little melancholy. The key, which sports six sharps, tends to sound somewhat on edge because of the care that must be taken to play everything in tune, and it is also a minefield for players who may forget that even E-sharps are de rigueur.
The minuet is indeed a minuet – perhaps a little surprising given the more freely composed first movement, and following as it does 72 previous string quartets written by Haydn over so many years. But Haydn still finds opportunities for invention and expression in the very formal minuet form, as as he does with the string quartet medium itself.
The last movement, which we played by itself on our first Monday night together back in September, is the Haydn we have come to expect; witty, playful and thoroughly enjoyable. In his later years he is the master of his craft, and the music still flows. As has been noted previously, Haydn may not have invented the string quartet, but his dedication to the medium certainly put it on the map, and his quartets not only endure, but are still box office after more than 200 years.
I've also noted that Haydn and Mozart engaged in a “virtuous spiral” of mutual inspiration for their quartet output beginning in the early 1780s, when Mozart moved to Vienna and became familiar with Haydn’s Opus 33 quartets. This prompted Mozart to write his six “Haydn” quartets, so called because Mozart dedicated them to Haydn, rather than to some prince. Even though they were born a generation apart, and rarely saw each other due to Haydn’s employment at Esterhazy, they admired each others’ work and formed a close friendship.
Haydn usually was in Vienna at Christmas, and on two occasions around the beginning of 1785 he and Mozart played these new quartets by Mozart, with Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Haydn on violin, Mozart on viola, and Johann Baptist Vanhall on cello. The tenor Michael Kelley, an Irishman who later sang the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro, was in attendance at one of these sessions and reported, “the players were tolerable,” although, “not one of them excelled on the instrument he played," but he enjoyed himself immensely nonetheless.
The first four of Mozart’s set of six quartets would have been finished by this time, and certainly his String Quartet in D Minor K 421 would have been played during one of these sessions. Mozart worked and reworked these scores, as apparently can be seen in the manuscripts, as he challenged himself to master Haydn’s classical style. His effort produced what some say is the pinnacle of the classical string quartet.
Tonight’s D minor quartet begins with a dramatic Allegro moderato to set the tone, followed by a somewhat more relaxed andante, and then a minuet that recalls in spirit the drama of the first movement. The trio of the minuet is a jarring contrast; it is an elegant dance in the midst of sturm und drang. This minuet and trio strangely are never far below my consciousness; they exemplify the tension between cultured refinement and unbridled passion that is, for me, the essence of Mozart. The last movement is a theme and variations on an elegant dance in a minor mode.
We invite our Community Musicians to read another Haydn quartet with us – his String Quartet in D Minor Opus 76 No. 2. In this work I hear Haydn paying homage to Mozart, who had died about four years prior, and in particular I hear echoes of the Mozart K 421 quartet in the first movement.
I read a comment in the NY Times last week in response to an article comparing classical music audiences and baseball fans (sigh). The responder wrote that Mozart, Haydn and the gang are by no means museum fare; whenever we play one of his works, Mozart’s music is right now, in the moment. It was worth wading through a silly comparison just to get to that response.
So grab your ears, grab your instrument, be in the moment with us, and get some Right Now time with Mozart and Haydn!
Let’s Play!
Jim (the violist)
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