Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3, “Rider”
Haydn’s String Quartet in G minor, nicknamed “Rider” for the last movement’s rollicking theme, shows the adventurousness of the 61-year-old composer.
Category: Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4, “Sunrise”
The sunrise is in the first measures—the first violin peaks up from a gentle dissonance. And so the day begins: mostly sunny, with a chance of clouds in the slow movement.
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 20, No. 4
In 1772 Charles Burney visited Vienna and reported hearing “exquisite quartets by Haydn,” probably from Op. 20. The D-major quartet is richly colored, frequently inflecting into minor.
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3, “The Bird”
Haydn’s “The Bird” quartet sheds much of the drama and gloom of his middle period. Grace notes suggest the chirping birds of the nickname.
Joseph Haydn: Divertimentos in G and C major, Hob. IV:7–8
Haydn developed a sideline writing for the growing commercial market. There was a lot of money in selling new works, or repackaging parts of old ones, like in these divertimentos.