Haydn - String Quartet 78 Op76/4 [Lindsay String Quartet] Last month i played the 79th Quartet from the Lindsays [25th January 2011], this one here is the previous number, nicknamed as the 'sunrise' Quartet, all of Haydn's Quartets are genial enough, very much foreshadowing Mozart, they're lively and fun, with some quirky little surprises at times, but nothing revolutionary as Beethoven, the numbering of these Quartets are mine, i seriously feel that they may well be in error, but it's what i've always called them!.
The Lindsay String Quartet are a British chamber music group, they formed in 1965, and were together for 40 years before disbanding in 2005, they embarked on a Haydn String quartet cycle for ASV Classical, recording the major String Quartets by him, this disc was recorded in 1999.
For me the first movement was fabulous, full of the rhythms that Haydn can produce at his best, marked as Allegro Con Spirito, and in the bright key of B Flat Major, but where other Composers find a darker vein [Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 & Prokofiev - Symphony 5], Haydn is full of exuberance, it starts off with a slow sombre introduction, but then explodes into life [0:43-1:07], the first violin is so exciting, and all the other instruments soon catch the bug, and after a short reprise of the opening, the exuberance returns [1:33+], and is capped by a frantic high treble outburst of joy! [1:39], and thereafter all the instruments throw around some individual staccato notes with such precision [1:50-2:05], a really lovely moment, after that it's a reprise of all that's gone on before [2:46-4:06], and a second helping of the exciting bits really fills me to the brim, Haydn's String Quartets should never be looked at as merely a forerunner of greater Composers.
Here's the Oberon String Quartet playing the first movement on YouTube.
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