String Quartet in D minor Op.42 (Hob. III:43)

What happened to the “very short” quartets Haydn announced he was working on for a patron in Spain in 1784 no one really knows. Perhaps he never wrote them. Or perhaps he wrote only one – in which case it could well be the Quartet in D minor Op.42, which was completed in 1785, which was published by itself rather than as part of a set, and which is not only easier to play than other Haydn quartets of the same period but also significantly shorter. It is no less interesting for that, however. The development section of the first movement might be short but it is certainly not negligent in reviewing the material of the exposition, including the rhythmically playful closing theme. The recapitulation takes a short cut between the first and second subjects but only to make room, it seems, for an extended coda on the closing theme and a D major ending.

The one virtuoso effect in the work occurs at the end of the Menuetto where the first violin is required to execute a staccato scale up to the D more than an octave above top C. A greater difficulty, though interpretive rather than technical, is the Adagio e cantabile, which depends on the interest of the opening melody being sustained throughout. The Finale also survives on one theme. Too short to compete in structural terms with the last movement of Mozart’s K.387 (the first of the six quartets recently dedicated to Haydn by his younger colleague), in its fugal treatment of its main theme Haydn’s Presto seems at least to acknowledge the challenge.