What a great way to discover these string quartets by Haydn in such excellent performances like the Alban Berg and Tokyo Quartet.

I really think that there is no music as satisfying and delicious as a well played string quartett...

Nobody writes string quartets like Haydn. His mastery in the genre certainly influenced and shaped the mozart and beethoven works in this medium. Their work would have sounded very different from what we know today had it not been for Haydn's trailblazing creations. Haydn was as much a genius as Mozart and Beethoven in my opinion. Father of the String Quartet and the Symphony none the less ! The ABQ are on top of their game here. Echt Viennese !

Excellent performance of the Alban Berg quartett. The quartet op. 76/1 is noticeable by its fugato opening and by the minor in its last movement which turnd into major at its end. The form of the fist movement op 76/5 is perfectlly original.

Mysterious tears come to mind the first love girl. Because of this music.

34,50 !!!!!!!!. Haydn "IS" a great composer,without the attention that he deserves .-

The fourth movement is HILARIOUS

This perfection, my god why are there not more comments.

one of the great slow movement of any SQ at 26:00 :)

Poor Haydn...so underrated and eclipsed by Mozart and Beethoven. In his string quartets, you can easily see that those 2 giants learned their trade from none other than him.

Hayden string quartet in D major op 76 no 5: 21:28

so consistently better than some other groups

first heard this at the cheese and wine party;)

Best 4tet.

Haydn invented the sonata, symphony, and string quartet. Not bad. But his best music, if melody is the criterion of best, is his concertos and string quartets. Too bad he didn't spend more time composing in those genres. He was a natural in actualizing the potential of the interplay between solo instrument and orchestra. His great chorus The Heaven's Are Telling from "The Creation" is the only chorus I can think of that vies with Handel's Hallelujah chorus from the "Messiah" for sheer effects. That the German government chose a movement from one of Haydn's later string quartets to be the German national anthem is an honor not to be sneezed at. I agree with those who complain that Haydn has suffered from being so close in time and style of music [Mannheim] to Mozart and being eclipsed by him. But, then, what composer wouldn't have been eclipsed by Mozart, the pinnacle of perfection. Haydn to Mozart's father, "Your son is the greatest composer I know of. He has both intelligence and taste." Beethoven to one of his students after both attended a performance of Mozart's 20th piano concerto, "Ah, we shall never get an idea like that." On another occasion commenting on Mozart, "An admirable composer." Schumann, "Have you noticed that Mozart is unique of all composers. The more you listen to his music the fresher it becomes." Brahms, upon being toasted at a party as the greatest composer in the world, lifted his glass, saying "To Mozart." Tchaikovsky, "Mozart is my musical Christ." Composers of that stature granting Mozart the top position on music's totem pole is, as well, not to be sneezed at. But, again, I do agree that Haydn has been somewhat overshadowed by Mozart, and unjustly so. But I have noticed thatHaydn is more and more coming out from under Mozart's shadow these days. A problem for Haydn is that the bulk of his music is those boring symphonies of his, yes, folks, boring, albeit shot through with some interesting passages, admittedly. Mozart's and Beethoven's symphonies are more imaginative. Haydn showed what he could do with his trumpet concerto and his cello concertos. Frustrating that a man of his monumental talent didn't spend more time composing concertos. Oh

considering that Haydn's quartets op. 76 have been written 6 years after Mozart died, we can say that there's a lot of Mozart in Haydn late work, just as much Haydn is in the early Mozart and Beethoven; hard to recognize who's who without knowing the author of a single quartet; my personal opinion is that while Haydn for sure reached in his quartets a very high formal and technical level, he lacks that existential tension, poetry and lyricism that instead make Mozart's and Beethoven's quartets universal and perpetually contemporary

I can see how Haydn influenced Beethoven from this - listen to the 2nd part.