String Quartets op.33 Nos 1-3 (Hybrid SACD)

Read more

The Chiaroscuro Quartet is now embarking on the "Russian Quartets", dedicated to the Russian Grand Duke Paul, the future Tsar Paul I. Having earned a reputation as eccentric and non-conformist, sometimes downright offensive, Haydn felt the need to write music more in keeping with the public's lighter, less 'scholarly' tone, with a livelier sense of rhythm. And while there is comedy in some of the scherzos, it would be wrong to reduce these works to what some critics have called 'comic fooling'.