HAYDN, Joseph 1732-1809

[Hob. III:44-49]. Six Quatuors pour deux violons alto et basse ... Dediés A Sa Majesté Frederic Guillaume II Roi de Prusse ... Oeuvre 50me. Prix f 4.30. Cum. Priv. S.C.M. "Prussian Quartets"]. [String quartets]. [Set of parts]

Vienne: Artaria [PN 109], [1787].

Folio. Sewn.

Violino primo: 1f. (recto title with elaborate engraved border incorporating coat of arms, crowned eagles, crown, and floral and architectural motifs, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-25 pp.
Violino secondo: 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-21, [i] (blank) pp.
Viola: 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-21, [i] (blank) pp.
Violoncello: 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-21, [i] (blank) pp.
Engraved throughout.

Occasional fingerings in contemporary ink to first violin part.

19th century annotation: "Tenor - Fundament" and "[?]Anton Kulhanek" to head of blank page preceding music to second violin part with hand-drawn stave and scale with note names and, on the same page, a small chart with note or string names and [?]transpositions and the name "Franz Rücker." Some dynamics modified in ink in viola part transforming "f" to "sf."

Somewhat worn, foxed, soiled, and stained; spines reinforced with early dark blue paper tape; edge tears with minor loss to blank margins of first violin part; outer and lower margin of final leaf reinforced, just touching staff lines.

First Edition of the Prussian Quartets. Hob. III:44-49. Hoboken Catalogue Vol. 7, 574. BUC, p. 465. RISM H3494 (two copies only in North America, one in Britain, and none in France or Italy).

The fourth quartet in this group in F sharp minor is regarded as one of Haydn's finest. "It shows for the first time [in the quartets] Haydn's definite renunciation of tragic ends to sonata movements, and his now typical association of the minor mode with a passionate, somewhat blustering temper, ending with a recapitulation (in these circumstances regular) in the tonic major, so that everything turns out well. ... In striking contrast to the happy end of the first movement, the final fugue, quietest and deepest of all the ... instrumental fugues since Bach, strikes a note so tragic that Beethoven's C sharp minor quartet is the first thing that one can connect with it." Tovey in Landon: Haydn Chronicle and Works II, p. 627.

Item #40066

Price: $4,200.00  other currencies