Early Haydn

“Of a new, entirely special kind,” that’s how Haydn describes his set of six quartets Opus 33, written in the refined Vienna of summer 1781. Wolfgang Rihm lives in a different world, in the frenzied world of today. But the clever playfulness that Haydn possessed, and that is so clearly heard in his String Quartet op. 33 no. 3, is also present in Rihm’s contemporary musical language. Rihm describes the playing of the Leonkoro Quartett as follows: “Enchanting quartet playing, like it hasn’t been heard in a long time.

Does coincidence exist? The young composer and violinist Joseph Haydn – not yet “Papa”, but rather “puppy” Haydn – played with three random other string players for the Viennese Count Von Fürnberg. The accidental harmony was so pleasing that the count asked Haydn for more repertoire for this combination. In the works that followed, Haydn laid the foundation for the string quartet, the medium that has given us so much beautiful music. In the concert series Early Haydn, the classical beauty of Haydn’s Opus 33 is in the hands of a different quartet every morning.