Sunday Classics preview: Haydn takes his time (1)

The Jugend Quartet (Fernando Vizcayno and Alejando Serna, violins; Tonatliúh Álvarez, viola; Pablo Reyes, cello) plays the second movement of Haydn's Emperor Quartet, Mexico City, February 2009.

by Ken

Nothing fancy this week, and nothing the least bit obscure. We're listening to Haydn slow movements, and in our preview, we're going to hear what are surely the two best-known, starting with that of the Emperor Quartet, a set of theme and variations of which I think it's safe to say everyone will recognize the theme.

This is maybe the strangest darned theme and variations movement I know, in that Haydn hardly varies that theme, whose gorgeousness survives even the unfortunate associations modern listeners will have for it -- except in terms of the instrument to which (and sometimes the register in which) the theme is assigned. The variation comes in the kinds of musical materials -- one hesitates to call them "accompaniments" with which he surrounds the theme.

This is, by the way, a most Haydnesque procedure, which must have required superhuman restraint on the composer's part. He was normally such a compulsive varier usually it seems as if he's begun playing with a tune before he's even finished giving it its initial statement.

HAYDN: String Quartet in C, Op. 76, No. 3 (Emperor):
ii. Poco adagio: cantabile: Theme and Variations
Amadeus Quartet (Norbert Brainin and Siegmund Nissel, violins; Peter Schidlof, viola; Martin Lovett, cello). DG, recorded September 1963

NOW, JUST BECAUSE WE CAN,
LET'S BREAK THE MOVEMENT DOWN

Theme

Variation I

Variation II

Variation III

Variation IV

Alban Berg Quartet (Günter Pichler and Gerhard Schulz, violins; Thomas Kakuska, viola; Valentin Erben, cello). EMI, recorded June 1994

AS LONG AS WE'RE AT IT, WE MIGHT
AS WELL HEAR THE WHOLE QUARTET

i. Allegro
ii. Poco adagio: cantabile: Theme and Variations
iii. Menuett: Allegro
iv. Finale: Presto
Tátrai Quartet (Vilmos Tátrai and Milhály Szücs, violins; György Konrád, viola; Ede Banda, cello). Hungaroton, recorded 1964

IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW --

We hear Haydn's best-known symphonic slow movement, en route to another one in Sunday's main post.

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