HAYDN: COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS - BUCHBURGER STRING QUARTET (24 CDS)

Haydn’s string quartets span his creative life – from the 1750s and the Opp. 1&2 sets through to his last unfinished quartet in D minor Op.103 of 1803. When the first quartets were written Bach had been dead only a few years and Handel had five years to live. When the last quartet was being worked on, Beethoven had finished his ground breaking Third Symphony. Arguably, Haydn’s greatest contribution to music is as the father of the string quartet rather than his oftgiven title as ‘Father of the Symphony’.His quartets developed from divertimenti and cassations, which were little more than light music for the entertainment of wealthy patrons and royalty, to some of the most profound and visionary music by any composer. In the same way as Bach’s ‘48’ have been described as a summation of all that had gone before, and the major influence upon all that would follow, Haydn’s quartets chart the development of the medium from ‘background’ music of high quality, to the major art form of the