Haydn: String Quartet in C major, Op. 33 No.3 (Hob.III:39) “The Bird”

Allegro moderato
Scherzo:- Allegretto
Adagio ma non troppo
Rondo:- Presto

This highly popular piece is the third of Haydn’s six Russian quartets, so calledafter he hastily and tactfully dedicated them to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, following a performance in Vienna on Christmas Day 1781. Fifteen years later Paul became Tsar, and set up an Imperial Residence at Pavlovsk, on the land given to him in 1777 by his mother, Catherine the Great

With the six “Sun” quartets (Op.20) Haydn appeared to have reached the goal of his sustained work on the evolution of the string quartet form – notably in the emancipation of the lower three parts (particularly the cello) from their previously more subordinate role, but also in the intellectual mastery of the monothematic sonata structures which became one of his hallmarks. The character of the other movements was also further established, although the rigorous counterpoint Haydn demanded of himself in the fugal finales of Nos. 2, 5, and 6 still needed to be incorporated with less self-consciousness. Despite this, he could yet be forgiven for appearing to rest on his laurels; his next set of quartets (Op.33) did not appear until 1781 – nine years later – although attention should be drawn to the fact that for much of this time, he had been striving to satisfy Prince Esterházy’s insatiable appetite for new operatic productions. However, when this set was eventually published Haydn did his utmost to persuade subscribers that the delay had been worthwhile: 

 …six brand new a Quadro…written in an entirely new and special way, for I have not composed any for ten [sic] years. 

Unashamed advertisement maybe, but the composer must certainly have been aware of how the finely tooled ingredients of the Op.20 quartets were here reproduced and exploited with an added maturity and experience. There is an extra novelty in that the heading menuetto is replaced by scherzo in all six works. These movements themselves do not actually display a noticeable advance over their predecessors – this happened some time later (the menuetto title having been restored), by then coming far closer to the spirit of the true Beethovenian scherzo. But it is clear that the quicker of the two traditional types of minuet is implied – and in any case, scherzo means literally “joke”, and these movements certainly abound in high spirits. 

The Op.33 quartets made a very deep impression on none other than Mozart, and immediately inspired a return to the quartet medium after a gap of nine years (remember that Haydn’s Op.33 were likewise separated from their predecessors by nine years). In February 1785 a party was held at Mozart’s home, during which two of his six new works were played – the ensemble consisted of Haydn and Dittersdorf as violinists, Mozart himself on the viola, and the cellist Vanhal. Afterwards, Haydn said to Leopold Mozart, “I tell you before God, as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer I know, either personally or by name; he has taste, and moreover the greatest science in composition”. Mozart’s own letter to Haydn, humbly requesting permission to dedicate the quartets to him, is no less touching in its affection and respect.

This C major quartet is probably the most famous of the group; and although its assumed nickname can undoubtedly take much of the credit for this it does actually focus attention on one or two special features. Obviously that Trio, with its trills and chirping staccati on the two solo violins, is the main novelty, but the grace notes which characterise the first movement’s principal material contribute almost as much to the overall picture suggested by the title. Even the rondo theme of the finale – based on a Slavonic dance tune, according to Haydn scholar Rosemary Hughes – can sound like ornithological twitterings, providing ample scope for Haydn’s sense of fun. Additionally, there is a general lightness of texture, and a higher than usual tessitura (particularly noticeable in the cello part), as if the whole quartet had taken wing. In this context, the sonority of the scherzo, with its grave sotto voce writing on the lowest string of each instrument, stands in even greater relief, and the singing lines of the Adagio are that much more telling – strange that this movement should so closely resemble its counterpart in the later quartet whose nickname actually identifies a feathered species: the “Lark”. Finally, one might observe that there are one or two passages in Op.33/3, for example the coda of the first movement, which suggest the influence of Mozart’s “Dissonance” quartet – until chronology and documentation remind us that the inspiration worked in reverse, for it was this very set to which the younger composer acknowledged his debt in his six great quartets dedicated to Haydn himself.

© Alan George
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