Joseph Haydn
String Quartet Op. 76, No. 2
1. Allegro
2. Andante o più tosto allegretto
3. Menuetto. Allegro ma non troppo
4. Vivace assai
Cleveland String Quartet
The six String Quartets, Op. 76 by Joseph Haydn were composed in 1796 or 1797 and dedicated to the Hungarian count Joseph Georg von Erdödy[n 1] (1754–1824). They form the last complete set of string quartets that Haydn composed. At the time of the commission, Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy II and was composing the oratorio The Creation as well as Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterházy’s annual mass.
Although accounts left by visitors to the Esterházy estate indicate that the quartets were completed by 1797, an exclusivity agreement meant that they were not published until 1799. Correspondence between Haydn and his Viennese publishers Artaria reveal confusion as regards their release: Haydn had promised Messrs. Longman Clementi & Co. in London the first publishing rights, but a lack of communication led him to worry that their publication in Vienna might also be, unintentionally, their first appearance in full. In the event, their publication in London and Vienna was almost simultaneous.
The Op. 76 quartets are among Haydn’s most ambitious chamber works, deviating more than their predecessors from standard sonata form and each emphasizing their thematic continuity through the seamless and near-continual exchange of motifs between instruments