Haydn: String Quartets Op. 9, Nos. 2, 5 And 6

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Cat No: 8550787

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 4891030507876

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: HAYDN

Description
Joseph Haydn (1732- 1809)String Quartets, Op. 9, Nos. 2, 5 and 6Joseph Haydn was born in the village of Rohrau in 1732, the son of awheelwright. Trained at the choir-school of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna,he spent some years earning a living as best he could from teaching and playingthe violin or keyboard, and was able to learn from the old musician Porpora,whose assistant he became. Haydn's first appointment was in 1759 asKapellmeister to a Bohemian nobleman, Count von Morzin. This was followed in1761 by employment as Vice-Kapellmeister to one of the richest men in theEmpire, Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, succeeded on his death in 1762 by hisbrother Prince Nikolaus. On the death in 1766 of the elderly and somewhatobstructive Kapellmeister, Gregor Werner, Haydn succeeded to his position, toremain in the same employment, nominally at least, for the rest of his life.On the completion under the new Prince of the magnificent palace atEsterhaza, built on the site of a former hunting-lodge set on the Hungarianplains, Haydn assumed 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, abowed string instrument with sympathetic strings that could also be plucked.On the death of Prince Nikolaus in 1790, Haydn was able to accept aninvitation to visit London, where he provided music for the concert seasonorganized by the violinist-impresario Salomon. A second successful visit toLondon in 1794 and 1795 was followed by a return to duty with the Esterhazyfamily, the new head of which had settled principally at the family property inEisenstadt, where Haydn had started his career. Much of the year, however, wasto be spent in Vienna, where Haydn passed his final years, dying in 1809, as theFrench armies of Napoleon approached the city yet again.Haydn lived during the period of the 18th century that saw the development ofinstrumental music from the age of Bach and Handel to the era of the classicalsonata, with its tripartite form, the basis of much instrumental composition.The string quartet itself, which came to represent classical music in its purestform, grew from a genre that was relatively insignificant, at least in itsnomenclature, the Divertimento, into music of greater weight, substanceand complexity, although Haydn, like any great master, knew well how to concealthe technical means by which he achieved his ends. The exact number of stringquartets that Haydn wrote is not known, although he listed some 83. The earlierof these, often under the title Divertimento, proclaim their origin andpurpose. The last quartet, Opus 103, started in 1803, remained unfinished.The first of Haydn's string quartets, variously titled as Divertimenti,Cassations or Nottu
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