Haydn’s Sunrise String Quartets by Haydn, Beethoven and Fanny Mendelssohn

17 March 2025

In the Utzon Room

Classical Music

Welcome to the sound-world that Haydn, Beethoven and Fanny Mendelssohn knew, as the AHE performs brilliant string quartets on the instruments the composers knew and loved. 

…superlative playing of what must be music in its purest form...

Limelight

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Brilliant. Audacious. Beautiful.

This program features two wonderful quartets that morph effortlessly from the lofty to the lowbrow, while Fanny Mendelssohn ’s quartet, apparently the first ever composed by a woman, offers an elegant riposte. Her Quartet in E flat is now lauded for its formal and harmonic audacity. Beethoven conjures a lovers’ farewell scenario in the wrenching despair of Op. 18 No.1’s Adagio. Whether the hazy, soft-focused opening to Haydn’s Sunrise quartet is an actual depiction of dawn matters little: the first two of Op. 76 No. 4 are among the most rhapsodically beautiful of all quartet movements. Both teacher (Haydn) and pupil (Beethoven) get their hands dirty in the remaining movements : brilliant counterpoint sits alongside tipsy hiccoughing, and each culminate in the dizzy whirl of a country dance. Splendid Classical works to experience live.

 Presented by The Australian Haydn Ensemble

Artists

Skye McIntosh
Violin

Matthew Greco
Violin

Karina Schmitz
Viola

Daniel Yeadon
Cello

 

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