Fri 25 Jan – The London Haydn Quartet

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Internationally renowned ensemble

Programme:

Mozart String Quartet No. 21 in D major K.575

Beethoven String Quartet op. 18 no. 6 in Bb major

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Haydn String Quartet op. 77 no. 2 in F major

One of the world’s leading period instrument string quartets, the London Haydn Quartet have received invitations to many of the
most important concert series, performing in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House. Their recordings for Hyperion have been met with international acclaim. Players Catherine Manson, Michael Gurevich, John Crockatt and Jonathan Manson join us to present works from quartet masters Beethoven and Mozart as well as Haydn, in a varied programme.

It’s a rare opportunity to hear a chamber ensemble of this calibre in the beautiful, intimate setting of St Lawrence’s Church.

In 1799 Haydn was writing his last quartets just as Beethoven was writing his first. Haydn’s Fmajor quartet, written with the humour and eloquence that earned him his reputation as thegreatest composer of quartets, a grand masterpiece full of inspired invention. Beethoven’s B flat major quartet, firmly rooted in the grammar established by the monumental legacy of Haydn andMozart, but unmistakably uttered through the new dramatic narrative of the young composer. A style so severe in its departure, it marks the time as a turning point in chamber music and surely would have contributed to Haydn’s sudden retirement from the genre. Accompanying these two works, one of Mozart’s last quartets, written with the cellist king of Prussia in mind. For the occasion, Mozart borrows a particularly egalitarian style of quartet writing from Haydn to achieve this typically tuneful and operatic quartet. Presenting these works from this trio of original string quartet masters is the London Haydn Quartet. Having dedicated themselves to the traditions of music from this era, they perform the world over from London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. Their recordings of the complete Haydn quartet cycle on the Hyperion label have been met with international acclaim.