String Quartet in F minor Op.20 No.5 Hob.III.35) (1772])

Haydn’s six string quartets Op.20 are known as the “Sun Quartets” for no better reason than that an early edition carries a rising-sun image on the title page. It would probably not have stuck as tenaciously as it has, however, if it were not appropriate for some other reason. It cannot be claimed that Op.20 represents the dawning of a new day for the string quartet – that had already happened with Haydn’s Op.9 and Op.17 sets – but it does shed new light on its texture. It is true that the first violin dominates the first movement of Op.20 No.5, a serious-minded sonata construction with a particularly remarkable coda, and both the Menuet and its trio, and when it shares the siciliano main theme of the Adagio with the second violin it is only to indulge itself in elaborate decorative figuration. The last movement, on the other hand – one of three fugal finales in the Op.20 set – involves all four instruments as equal voices in a brilliantly accomplished fugue on the two subjects introduced by second violin and viola in the opening bars.