Haydn: String Quartets Op. 74, Nos. 1- 3

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Cat No: 8550396

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 4891030503960

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: HAYDN

Description
Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)Apponyi Quartets Nos. 4 - 6 (Op. 74, Nos.1 -3)Joseph Haydn was born in the village ofRohrau in 1732, the son of a wheelwright. Trained at the choir-school of St.Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, he spent some years earning a living as best hecould from teaching and playing the violin or keyboard, and was able to learnfrom the old musician Porpora, whose assistant he became. Haydn's firstappointment was in 1759 as Kapellmeister to a Bohemian nobleman, Count vonMorzin. This was followed in 1761 by employment as Vice-Kapellmeister to one ofthe richest men in the Empire, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, who was succeeded,on his death in 1762, by his brother Prince Nikolaus. On the death in 1766 ofthe elderly and sometimes obstructive Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, Haydnsucceeded to his position, to remain in the same employment for the rest of hislife.On the completion of the magnificentpalace at Esterhaza, in the Hungarian plains, under Prince Nikolaus, Haydnassumed command of an increased musical establishment. Here he hadresponsibility for the musical activities of the palace, which included theprovision and direction of instrumental music, opera and theatre music, andmusic for the church. For his patron he provided a quantity of chamber music ofall kinds, particularly for the Prince's own peculiar instrument, the baryton. On the death of Prince Nikolaus in 1790,Haydn was able to accept an invitation to visit London, where he provided musicfor the concert season organized by the violinist-impresario Salomon. A secondsuccessful visit to London in 1794 and 1795 was followed by a return to dutywith the Esterhazy family, the new head of which had settled principally at thefamily property in Eisenstadt, where Haydn had started his career. Much of theyear, however, was to be spent in Vienna, where Haydn passed his final years,dying in 1809, as the French armies of Napoleon approached the city yet again.Haydn lived during the period of the 18thcentury that saw the development of instrumental music from the age of Bach andHandel to the era of the classical sonata, with its tripartite form, the basisof much instrumental composition. The string quartet itself, which came torepresent classical music, in its purest form, grew from a genre that wasrelatively insignificant, at least in its nomenclature, the Divertimento intomusic of greater weight, substance and complexity, although Haydn, like anygreat master, knew well how to conceal the technical means by which he achievedhis ends. The exact number of string quartets that Haydn wrote is not known,although he listed some 83. The earlier of these, often under the titleDivertimento, proclaim their origin and purpose.The so-called Apponyi Quartetswere written in 1793 and dedicated to a nobleman, Count Anton Georg Apponyi,who was a member of the circle dominated by Baron van Swieten, the Gesellschaftder Associirten, which fostered interest in the music of J. S. Bach and Handel.It was Apponyi who
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