Quartet in G major Op.54/1

For most of his working life, Haydn was in the service
of the Esterházy family. Prince Nicolaus Esterházy was one of the richest men
in Europe and could afford to have an extensive musical establishment under the
direction of Haydn, who for much of his lifetime was the most famous composer
in Europe. The combination of Haydn’s fame and
his employer’s munificence meant that the Esterházy palace boasted an orchestra
led by superb musicians. Haydn was under permanent pressure from his employer
to produce an endless stream of new works in an era when every concert was
expected to stage yet more new works from the famous Kapellmeister. The new
works that his Prince demanded were baryton trios (now often played with flute,
violin and cello), new symphonies and church music – and, after 1776, new
operas.

So Haydn’s urge to write string quartets was personal,
driven partly by the presence in Esterháza of outstanding musicians like Luigi
Tomasini and Johann Tost but also by the success of his quartets in the outside
world. Publishers would fight over the right to publish them and in an era
before copyright Haydn would often sell his manuscripts to several different
publishers in different cities such as Vienna, Paris and London.
So Haydn was well aware of the demand for his music and, as his fame gave him
some measure of independence from his employer, he was able to take a direct
role in the supply of new works. He also became conscious of having a
reputation to maintain, although despite plenty of adverse criticism, he
remained an artist who did not so much respond to contemporary taste as create
it.

In the history of music, many famous works have been
created because composers have been able to work with outstanding musicians.
One such musician was the violinist Johann Tost, for whom the twelve quartets
of Op.54, Op.55 and Op.64 were written and a feature of these quartets is the
brilliance of the first violin part. This can instantly be seen in the G major
Quartet when the first violin takes off above the staccato accompaniment of the
lower instruments. The movement is driven by this combination of the powerful
dotted rhythm and the increasingly virtuosity of the first violin, which
quickly overwhelm all other ideas although the development section accords the
second subject some respect and in the recapitulation the virtuosity is shared
out more equally among the other instruments.

The dotted rhythm is continued in the lovely Allegretto
which is through-composed without repeats. Once again Johann Tost’s first
violin carries both the melody and its fervent decoration. This is one of
Haydn’s many great slow movements. The Menuetto is a two-part rather
heavy-footed dance enclosing a lighter Trio, that makes up to the three lower
instruments by excluding the first violin from its first half. Haydn’s presto
rondo finales demand a lot from the players, a rush of ideas to be delivered at
high speed and often with great delicacy notwithstanding the more assertive
moments. The ending is another of Haydn’s little witticisms.