Haydn, Op. 1, No. 6

I got to play the last of the complete string quartets in my project to do all of those Haydn composed.  This was the C major, Op. 1, No. 6.  It was a special occasion, because I got to welcome a new volunteer to the Haydn Project, the 10-year-old son of my Sunday evening sonata partner.  He's the young violinist with whom I played the Schubert string trio earlier this year, and I have to say, he keeps getting better.  Technically he was fine, but I was particularly impressed with his musicality.  He got lost a few times, but always managed to figure out how to get back.  And that's a trick that I have to admit sometimes eludes me in Haydn!

The Haydn Op. 1 and Op. 2 quartets are somewhat odd.  They're really not fully developed string quartets: the viola and particularly the cello parts aren't very interesting, and in general, they often fall back to the melody-and-accompaniment pattern.  The slow movement of 1/6, for example, is beautiful, but it's entirely a first violin solo with pizzicato accompaniment from the other three strings.  And these quartets have a symmetrical structure with two minuets.  My joke is that Haydn figured he wouldn't be able to write a thousand minuets in his life if he didn't try to cram some extras into his early quartets.  (Has anyone added up how many minuets Haydn wrote?  It's got to be at least 200!)

Oh, I almost forgot: I said "last of the complete string quartets" because the only one I have remaining is the unfinished Op. 103, and I'm hoping to play that later this month.  This has been an absolutely incredible musical journey, and I recommend it to all amateur string quartet players.  Although if you're a cellist, I might suggest, as Haydn himself apparently recommended, that you start with Opus 9. :-)