Opus 1 No. 1 B flat major - 8 notes, 2 secs, and it's on

It begins with 8 notes in just under two seconds. Hopping up the scale, Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 1 No. 1 in B flat major "la Chasse" is Haydn's first string quartet. Haydn, we must assume, had no idea that he was embarking on a journey that would result in 83 of these compositions for four strings. In fact, he certainly did not know he was basically inventing a form - the string quartet. As I understand it, Haydn improvised these early compositions for four musicians who were available for his employer Baron Carl von Joseph Edler von Fürnberg. The two violins, viola, and cello that make up the string quartet are today one of the most beloved of all musical ensembles.



Opus 1 opens with a presto and proceeds through five movements. A menuetto, an adagio, a second menuette, and a second presto. The prestos live up to their name, particularly the second. In the recording I am listening to by the Dekany String Quartet recorded in 1964 for the Vox lable, the pace is uptempo and crisp. Of course, there are other recordings. One that I sampled was by the Kodaly Quartet. It's much more deliberate and rich. I just couldn't envision an 18 year old Haydn arranging the first presto movement as Kodlay did, but Dekany's pace seems right on.

I have read that the Dekany Quartet was put together for the expressed purpose of recording the Haydn string quartet catelog, so it pleases my sense of history to start here.

The Gramophone Review of this recording, also linked above, sets the bar pretty low for the recording.

"Volume 1 is of interest historically as well as aesthetically. The two quartets from Haydn's first opus may have no emotional depths, but they were just about the first string quartets ever written by anyone, and they show us the astonishing distance Haydn had travelled by the time he reached maturity. "

I'm a novice, but I found plenty of depth, particularly in the Adagio middle movement, starting with the opening.

Find more music like this on Haydn String Quartet


I'm sure there's a lot more complexity and depth to come. Actually, I have my Opus 20 experience to draw on, but Opus I No 1 is a bright start for me.