Haydn - String Quartet 79 Op76/5 [Lindsay String Quartet] The Op76 String Quartets are a group of six Quartets [Nos 75-80], and this is the second disc of those Quartets, how good it would be to put both into a double disc box set?, Haydn's String Quartets may seem a bit unimaginative compared to late Schubert and Beethoven, but like his many Symphonies, they have a life of their own, each Quartet seems to have a really good movement out of the four, Haydn's inability seems to not being able to get four of them into the same Quartet, but his String Quartets are worth a listen, and i'm always happy after hearing one of his efforts.
The Lindsay String Quartet or 'The Lindsays' as they later have become to be known, were one of the leading String Quartet units throughout the world, justly famous for their interpretations, they formed in 1965, and disbanded in 2005 after 40 years together, they have been recording the Haydn String Quartets disc by disc, and i'm not sure if they have recorded all the Haydn Quartets, but certainly at least the major bulk of them, this disc was recorded in 1999.
I very much enjoyed the very last movement of this work, the short Presto fourth movement, it clocks in at under 4 minutes, but where it's short on time, it's certainly the opposite on content, it's so packed full of good things, that i really find it hard to pull it apart and show where the best parts are, as it's all so good, it's like an intricate watch, pulling one tiny mechanism out to show its beauty has a tendency to pull the whole thing apart!, a feature of this movement is the background rhythms produced by a quick monotonous bowing figure [0:04], and Haydn uses this excellent rhythm to fuel the whole movement, the first violin and the cello throw around a nice tune while the second violin and viola play this rhythm [1:30], it's so gorgeously enthusiastic and contagious, and it doesn't let up till it's ended, a great little piece of music to get to know.
Here's the Ysaye String Quartet playing the fourth movement on YouTube.
