Violist Richard O'Neill won a Grammy Award in 2020 for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and an International Emmy for his work with a multicultural youth orchestra.
Composition History
The Op. 103 quartet remained a fragment because the 72-year-old Haydn could no longer sustain the concentration needed for the intellectually demanding first and last movements.
Composition History
Haydn's string quartets Op. 33, written "in a quite new and special way," caused an international sensation upon their release in 1782.
Performer Biography
The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by four students, including cellist András Fejér, who is still a member.
Composition History
Haydn intended to write six quartets for Prince Lobkowitz, who also commissioned Beethoven's Op. 18 quartets, but only completed two (Op. 77) due to his declining health.
Composition History
The Op. 42 quartet may contain music from a lost or abandoned project for a Spanish patron, for which Haydn had intended to write three short, three-movement quartets.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Haydn, more than anyone, elevated the string quartet from its humble origins as an alfresco serenade to the supreme test of a composer's taste, ingenuity, and expressive power.
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