After a creative pause of six years, Haydn composed in 1787 for the first time again a series of string quartets which he dedicated to his patron King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia - thus the name “Prussian Quartets”. The present album presents Quartets Nos. 1-3 performed by the Swiss Amati Quartet:

 

Stringquartet op. 50 No. 1, in B flat Major (Hob. 111:44) Stringquartet op. 50 No. 2, in C Major (Hob. 111:45) Stringquartet op. 50, No. 3, in E flat Major (Hob. 111:46)

 

For the 20th anniversary of the Amati Quartet we are pleased to release the first three stringquartets of Haydn’s Prussian Quartets op. 50. Together with the previous release of op. 50 No. 4-6 (CDX-29810), the Amatis have now recorded and released the whole op. 50.

 

Lets hear Haydn’s contemporary and admirer, Ignaz Ernst Ferdinand Arnold: ”... thus, Haydn’s music smoothly enters the ear because we believe we are hearing something we’ve already heard. But soon we find that it is no longer becoming - no longer is - that which we believed it to be or that which it should have become. We are hearing something new, and marvel at the master who knew how to present us with something unheard of under the guise of the generally known.”

 

The Amati Quartet for this recording: Willi Zimmermann, first violin | Katarzyna Nawrotek, second violin | Nicolas Corti, viola | Claudius Herrmann, violoncello