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Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 1-3 - Chiaroscuro Quartet

Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 1-3 - Chiaroscuro Quartet

BIS  BIS-2348

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Chamber


Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 1-3

Chiaroscuro Quartet


The Chiaroscuro Quartet made their first appearance on BIS with acclaimed recordings of Joseph Haydn’s 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 Chiaroscuro's 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 Haydn’s 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.

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Comments (1)

Comment by Ben Leggett - September 5, 2021 (1 of 1)

These performances have a vibrancy, joy and sense of fun that is too often far removed from chamber music performances - I think Haydn himself would have cracked a smile.

The recordings here are excellent, come in marvelous multichannel, and are confirmed to be mastered to SACD at > 44.1khz by looking at the waveform.