Haydn: String Quartets Op.20 Nos. 4-6, Vol.2 – Chiaroscuro Quartet

   in Early Music Today (Dec, 2017)
Haydn may have invented the string quartet, apparently by accident, in the late 1750s, but it was only in his Op.9, Op.17 and Op.20 sets from 1769 –72 that he began to move towards a more purposeful examination of the form’s inherent possibilities. In particular, it was Op.20, prized by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms alike, which changed the course of music history: here, as Rosemary Hughes has written, ‘the string quartet texture is finally achieved’, as all four instrumentalists participate in the musical conversation.

The Chiaroscuro Quartet’s second Op.20 disc, comprising Nos.4 to 6, repeats many of the good – and less good – attributes of their first disc, released in …