Repertoire
Franz Joseph Haydn:
String Quartet No. 36 in B flat major, Op. 50 No. 1 (1787) 22’
String Quartet No. 50 in B flat major, Op. 64 No. 3 (1790) 20’
Artists
Marmen Quartet
Johannes Marmen, violin
Ricky Gore, violin
Bryony Gibson-Cornish, viola
Steffan Morris, cello
Program
The great Marmen Quartet will be performing two quartets composed by Haydn after reinventing himself at almost 60 years old. The op. 50 works came after six years without producing a full set of quartets. In these pieces, which follow the traditional slow-fast-slow-fast four-movement structure, Haydn produced a more experimental and intellectual work than his earlier quartets.
DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAMME HEREAs a result of the death of Prince Esterházy and the subsequent release of Haydn from his contracts, in only a few months Haydn the court composer had become Haydn the composer acclaimed by the modern public, who paid money to hear his works. With Europe in the midst of the industrial revolution, big capital cities such as London were inaugurating public concert seasons, with printed scores circulating with the pace of the steam engine, the continent’s urban development and a new economic theory known as “capitalism”. The op. 64 quartets thus consolidate a more modern Haydn in a new social order that would make a deep mark on European history.