Radio Times: Review by:; Laurence Joyce

In returning to the music of Haydn, Donald Macleod focuses on the composer’s invention of that most aristocratic of musical forms — the string quartet. Among the other works heard in these five programmes, the quartets, like a musical thread, weave through the week as they did Haydn’s long career, from the earliest examples written largely for the amusement of the players to the musical maturity of the Op 20 and Op 33, and the later sets that demand an audience, sometimes in dramatic fashion.

Mozart and Beethoven later carried the string quartet to new heights, but it was Haydn who first taught it to sing.

About this programme

Donald Macleod explores the life of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), who became known as `the father of the string quartet'. In this first programme he explores how the young composer stumbled on a new instrumental form. Haydn: String Quartet, Op 1 No 1 (excerpt). Angeles String Quartet. Salve Regina, H XXIIIb. Ann Monoyios (soprano), Tölzer Knabenchor, Tafelmusik, director Bruno Weil. String Quartet, Op 1 No 3. Angeles String Quartet. Horn Concerto, H VIId 3. Timothy Brown, Academy of Ancient Music, director Christopher Hogwood.