Luogo e data di registrazione		Théâtre Vevey, Vevey (Svizzera) - 15-24 agosto 1965
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Vittorio Negri | Tony Buczynski
	Edizione LP		Philips | 6570 577 | 1 LP
	Prima Edizione CD		Vedi link alla prima edizione in long playing.
	Note		La collana "Musica da Camera" della Philips riedita negli anni '80 alcune registrazioni del Quartetto Italiano.

The F major Quartet, Op. 3 No. 5 is one of a series published in 1760. Recently, some diubt has been cast on authenticity of these works, because they cannot be clearly traced hack to Haydn, but the construction, melodic invention, and development all point to the younger Haydn, who at this date had been for some years musical director to Prince Esterházy, and was already a celebrated musician. The work contains a C major slow movement, which played separately under the title "Serenade" spread Haydn a fame far and wide. It is an Italian aria, in which the model first violin plays the melody from start so finish, while the other instruments play a pizzicato accompaniment. The compact minuet is a vigorous dance movement, with an attractive trio, scured without the viola. The remaining two movements which are equally brief show the beginnings of real thematic working. In the first movement exposition, the themes are clearly differentiated. The development keeps strictly to the previously stated thematic material, and head almost unobtrusively into the slightly different recapitulation. The little finale (scherzando) is loosely linked to the first movement, but is essentially of the gay closing movement type. The String Quartet in D, Op. 64 No. 5, was composed in 1790. It is clearly a very different work from the F major Quartet, which still bears traces of the divertimento. The D major Quartet is one of the works which Haydn dedicated to the Viennese merchant, Tost. Haydn's art has now reached a technical and musical maturity, which is hereafter maintained, under the different requirements of later works, but never surpassed. The D major Quartet has been given the nickname "The Lark," on account of the soaring principal themes of the first movement, which is carried by the first violin high above the other voices, like the song of a lark. The magnificent development is followed by an ingenious extended recapitulation, in which the "lark" theme, restarded as it were, appears a second time, with a few variations in the accompaniment. The beautifully melodious Adagio falls into three sections. The middle section in A minor begin with small imitations. The minuet with its delicate filigree work, is rather different from earlier examples and shows, in the trio as well, sheer delight in the interplay of the different voices, which also have some chromatic elements. The short minor-key fugato finale shows that Haydn had more in mind than merely to provide a merry close to the work. The D minor Quartet, Op. 76 No. 2, is an wresilling work. It was composed in 1797, and its particular quality hes in the complete abstruction of the first movement, in which the two descending fifths A-D and E-A, are manipulated thematically with a truly remarkable. Elements of sonata form and fugue stretto inversion, diminution, and augmentation, Haydn uses every of composition to build a sonata movement which scarcely has an equal. The Allegretto movement is in complete contrast, with its air and variations form and gentle opening melody. The minuet is a very exceptional movement. It is written as a two part "endless" canon with octave unison in both parts. This sounds unusually hard, but is neverthless characteristic of Haydn. The opening of the trio has a particularly grateful effect, leaving the unison and moving through the minor key into D major. The finale is once again in sonata form, with a very full development and an extended recapitulation, which finally enters the relative major. In this movement Haydn draws on the melody and rhythm of Hungarian folk-music. It comes closer to the abstraction of the opening of the work, even through the thematic working is not quite so compact and inflexible. Helmut Wirth

Illustration: Johann Jacob Tischbein (1725-1791) "Der Morgen", 1773 (Hamburger Kunsthalle)