Haydn Quatuors à cordes op 33 n 3 4 et 6 Quatuor Terpsycordes - CLA3112 - Claves

Joseph Haydn often said that he had enjoyed an “exem¬plary destiny”: starting from nothing, he became one of the most celebrated composers of his time. He was born in Rohrau, some fifty kilometres east of Vienna, into a relatively modest family – his father was a wheelwright, a recognised and respected mas¬ter craftsman. The child’s musical talent was quickly recognised; he was first sent to Hainburg and later to Vienna, where he served as a chorister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral until he turned sixteen. His firm refusal to embrace an ecclesiastical career led him to take to the streets; he then encountered the famous choirmaster Porpora, who engaged him as an accompanist for his singing lessons, lodging him in a garret where snow would sometimes seep through to his bed during the winter, but allowing him to learn Italian, singing, and composition. However, his career was launched with string quartets: in 1757, the young Haydn composed his first quartets (Opp. 1 and 2) for Baron Fürnberg. Of a new genre, distinct from the usual divertimenti, these pieces quickly achieved immense success, and copies were to be found throughout Europe. Shortly afterwards, the composer was appointed Kapellmeister, and a year later, following his unhappy marriage to Maria-Anna Keller, he entered the service of Prince Paul Anton Esterházy, one of the wealthiest families in Hungary. Deeply attached to Prince Nikolaus, Haydn held his position for thirty years, composing for the two theatres on the Esterháza estate almost all of his operas and most of his symphonic and chamber music works, before discovering London during two sojourns during which he was triumphantly celebrated. After his return to Vienna in 1795, he composed his most famous oratorios and masses alongside many other works, until his death on 31 May 1809, two weeks after Vienna’s surrender to Napoleon’s troops. Joseph Haydn was one of the most important musi¬cians of his time, both for the sheer number of his works and for his significant contributions to various genres. Alongside Boccherini, he was the founder of the string quartet, a new genre placing four instruments of the same family on equal footing and allowing them to dialogue without the need for a continuo bass. For a long time, the composer was credited with eighty-three string quartets, based on the complete 1801 edition by his pupil Ignaz Pleyel. Today, their number stands at sixty-eight, spanning the period from 1757 to 1803, from the birth of the genre to the dawn of Romanticism.