Haydn: Divertimento (Cassatio) in C major, Op.1 No.6 (Hob.III:6, c1758)

Presto assai
Menuetto
Adagio
Menuetto
Finale:– Presto

Because the earliest quartets we generally hear nowadays are by Haydn, we tend to assume that he invented them himself. But like most art forms, the string quartet evolved over a period of time and through the work of more than one musician. During the first half of the eighteenth century, the principal medium for chamber music was the trio sonata, and the most important development towards a new type of ensemble was the removal of the harpsichord continuo. On the other hand, the size of an orchestra could vary in number, right down to one player per part (“never less than four”, according to one eminent scholar). In fact, when Haydn’s Op.1 were first published (in Paris, by Louis-Balthasar de la Chevardière in 1764) they were described as Six simphonies ou quatours dialogués pour deux violons, alto viola & basse obligés. composés par Mr. Hayden. 

Indeed, one of these works – together with two more from Op.2 – originally included wind parts, and so do not properly belong in these sets at all (whilst another, now known as “Op.0”, was inadvertently omitted by Pleyel when re-ordering all the quartets in 1801). Furthermore, Haydn himself did not use the term quartet until much later, all of his first twenty or so “quartets” being listed in his own catalogue as Divertimenti or Divertimenti a quattro. Certainly the music in Opp. 0, 1, and 2 is serenade-like in character, with little trace of the rigorous working out of material which we associate with his more fully fledged masterpieces. These earlier compositions all have five short movements rather than four, two of which are minuets of clearly contrasting tempo and spirit. Usually they are in turn separated by a slow movement in the character of an operatic aria, providing a pleasing symmetry to each work as a whole. Here we have a particularly exquisite example, with the first violin’s cantilena delicately accompanied pizzicato in true serenade style.

© Alan George
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