Haydn: String Quartets Op.33 ‘Russian’ Nos.4-6 – Chiaroscuro Qt | SACD, BIS

Following the release of the first three quartets of the Op. 33 set in May 2023 [BIS2588], a recording that was hailed by critics for its ‘extraordinarily faithful reading that goes straight to the heart of the works’ (Diapason) and won numerous awards (including a Diapason d’or, Choc from Classica and Supersonic from Pizzicato), the Chiaroscuro Quartet presents the last three quartets in this set. Having already recorded Op. 20 and Op. 76, this ensemble, whose unique sound has been described as ‘a shock to the ears of the best kind’ (The Observer) here continues its historically informed and illuminating journey through Joseph Haydn’s string quartets, a long-term project that started in 2020.

Dubbed the ‘Russian Quartets’ and dedicated to the Russian Grand Duke Paul, the future Tsar Paul I, these works show Haydn at his most eccentric and non-conformist. For this set, Haydn felt the need to write music more in keeping with the public’s lighter, more ‘popular’, less ‘scholarly’ tastes, with a livelier sense of rhythm. With their stylistic advance over the preceding quartets, it can be said that in real terms they mark the birth of the classical quartet genre. Mozart drew inspiration from them for his own quartets ‘dedicated to Haydn’.