String Quartet in D major, Op.64 No.5, Hob.III.63 “Lark” (1790)

Haydn’s six String Quartets Op.64 were written in 1790 for “wholesaler Tost,” which is a not very glamorous dedication for such a set of    masterpieces. But before he went into business Johann Tost had been a principal violinist in the orchestra at Esterháza and Haydn both admired his virtuosity and respected his musicianship. If he was sometimes a little ironic about Tost’s predilection for the higher positions on the E-string, in the first movement of the “Lark” Quartet the composer indulges his first violin here in a flight of fancy entirely worthy of the nickname it has attracted to the work. Lofty inspiration though it is, however, this opening theme is not designed for development. So we hear it three more times in its original form, once at the beginning of a short development, which is otherwise devoted to second-subject material, and twice in a curious double recapitulation.

The Adagio cantabile is an expressive aria for first violin which, though not undecorative in the opening section, is elaborately and most effectively embellished in a reprise all the more serene for the intervention of a briefly disturbing middle section initiated by second violin and viola. Melodic interest is more evenly distributed in the Menuetto – in effect a gently paced and good-humoured scherzo – although it is only in the comparatively short and contrapuntal Trio section that all four instruments are integrated on equal terms.

The larger part of the Vivace last movement, on the other hand, is a challenge addressed directly, though not exclusively, to the first violin. A study in perpetual motion occasionally involving the second violin as well, it runs headlong into a D minor middle section that exercises the whole ensemble in its strenuous fugal texture. Having survived that, viola and cello are happy to join the violins in an even more exhilarating reprise of the opening material.       

The six String Quartets Op.64 were written in 1790 for “wholesaler Tost,” which is a not very glamorous dedication for such a set of masterpieces. But before he went into business Johann Tost had been a principal violinist in the orchestra at Esterháza and - as is no less clear from Op.64 than from the Op.54 and Op.55 Quartets that were also written for him - Haydn both admired his virtuosity and respected his musicianship. If he was sometimes a little ironic about Tost’s predilection for the higher positions on the E-string, in the first movement of the “Lark” Quartet the composer indulges his first violin here in a flight of fancy entirely worthy of the nickname it has attracted to the work. Lofty inspiration though it is, however, this opening theme is not designed for development. So we hear it three more times in its original form, once in G major at the beginning of a short development, which is otherwise devoted to second-subject material, and twice in D major in a curious double recapitulation.

The Adagio cantabile is an expressive aria for first violin which, though not undecorative in the opening section, is elaborately and most effectively embellished in a reprise all the more serene for the intervention of a briefly disturbing middle section initiated by second violin and viola. Melodic interest is more evenly distributed in the Menuetto - in effect a gently paced and good-humoured scherzo - although it is only in the comparatively short and contrapuntal Trio section that all four instruments are integrated on equal terms.

The larger part of the Vivace last movement, on the other hand, is a challenge addressed directly, though not exclusively, to the first violin. A study in perpetual motion occasionally involving the second violin as well, it runs headlong into a D minor middle section that exercises the whole ensemble in its strenuous fugal texture. Having survived that, viola and cello are happy to join the violins in an even more exhilarating reprise of the opening material.

String Quartet in D major, Op.64 No.5, Hob.III.63 “Lark” (1790)

Allegro moderato

Adagio cantabile

Menuetto: allegretto

Finale: vivace

The six String Quartets Op.64 were written in 1790 for “wholesaler Tost,” which is a not very glamorous dedication for such a set of masterpieces. But before he went into business Johann Tost had been a principal violinist in the orchestra at Esterháza and - as is no less clear from Op.64 than from the Op.54 and Op.55 Quartets that were also written for him - Haydn both admired his virtuosity and respected his musicianship. If he was sometimes a little ironic about Tost’s predilection for the higher positions on the E-string, in the first movement of the “Lark” Quartet the composer indulges his first violin here in a flight of fancy entirely worthy of the nickname it has attracted to the work. Lofty inspiration though it is, however, this opening theme is not designed for development. So we hear it three more times in its original form, once in G major at the beginning of a short development, which is otherwise devoted to second-subject material, and twice in D major in a curious double recapitulation.

The Adagio cantabile is an expressive aria for first violin which, though not undecorative in the opening section, is elaborately and most effectively embellished in a reprise all the more serene for the intervention of a briefly disturbing middle section initiated by second violin and viola. Melodic interest is more evenly distributed in the Menuetto - in effect a gently paced and good-humoured scherzo - although it is only in the comparatively short and contrapuntal Trio section that all four instruments are integrated on equal terms.

The larger part of the Vivace last movement, on the other hand, is a challenge addressed directly, though not exclusively, to the first violin. A study in perpetual motion occasionally involving the second violin as well, it runs headlong into a D minor middle section that exercises the whole ensemble in its strenuous fugal texture. Having survived that, viola and cello are happy to join the violins in an even more exhilarating reprise of the opening material.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Adagio and Fugue in C minor K.546 (1783-88)

Adagio - Allegro

One of the most significant events in Mozart’s career - one which changed his whole style, once he had absorbed its implications - was his encounter with J.S.Bach. He knew Bach’s sons and was particularly indebted to Johann Christian, but the music of Bach the father was little known to him, or of little importance to him, until about 1782. He came to realise the greatness of Bach through his contact with Baron von Swieten, who had been the Imperial Ambassador to the court of Prussia in the 1770s and whose attention had been drawn to J.S.Bach by none other than Frederick the Great. From then on van Swieten became a baroque enthusiast and, when he returned to Vienna, used to present concerts of Bach and Handel at his home at Sunday lunchtime.

It was for these concerts that Mozart made a number of arrangements of Bach keyboard fugues. He was deeply affected by them and one of the early results was the Fugue in C minor, K.426, for two pianos - a fully developed four-part fugue on a Bach-like theme. Later, in 1788, he arranged it for strings and supplied it with a Prelude which, though of an unaccustomed grandiloquence in Mozart’s music, is no more than the fugue, a remarkable anticipation of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, deserves.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

String Quartet in D major Op.44 No.1 (1838)

Molto allegro vivace

Menuetto: un poco allegretto

Andante espressivo ma con moto

Presto con brio

Mendelssohn started work on his Op.44 string quartets during the course of a blissful honeymoon in the Rhineland in the spring of 1837. Strangely, however, the earliest of these quartets, the one in E minor published as Op.44 No.2, is far from being the most ecstatic. That distinction surely belongs to the last in order of composition, published as Op.44 No.1, which was completed more than a year later in July 1838. Certainly, there is nothing in any of the three works to compare with the outburst of joy represented by the irrepressible opening theme of the Quartet in D major. Introduced by an impetuous violin over a throbbing rhythm in the inner parts, it animates and dominates much of the rest of the movement.

Mendelssohn’s decision to revert to the minuet at this stage, when he was such a master of the modern scherzo, has often been questioned. It seems likely, however, that after the restless activity of the first movement he felt the need for something more restrained than one of his characteristically hyper-active scherzos. His choice of the old-fashioned dance form does indeed secure a graceful kind of serenity while retaining something of the momentum generated by the preceding Molto allegro vivace. Interestingly enough, according to the metronome marks, the following Andante espressivo ma con moto should proceed at much the same tempo as the Menuetto. So instead of introducing a full-scale slow movement he offers a kind of song without words featuring not only the rueful opening theme in B minor but also two gently paced scherzo episodes and an imaginatively conceived if modest cadenza.

The last movement immediately picks up the momentum which has been preserved under the surface since the end of the Molto allegro vivace. A brilliantly sustained Presto con brio, it finds its energy in its restless main theme, its poetry in a rather more lyrical second subject and its structural strength in the opening four-note motif which echoes throughout the movement but most effectively of all in an emphatically articulated fugato shortly before the end.