The six string quartets of Haydn’s Op 33 include two of his most popular – the ones nicknamed the Joke and the Bird, justifying his claim that the works were written “in a completely new and special ...

Musical nicknames are good for business. Haydn’s set of six string quartets, Op 33, has had nicknames for the whole set, none of which is very widely used. “Russian”, favoured by BIS, remembers the ...

Between 1757 and 1799, Franz Joseph Haydn completed 67 string quartets. Every one, even the lightweight early divertimentos, has something in it to enjoy. Many of the last quartets are masterpieces.

Two years ago, Haydn's bicentenary caused many to take him a lot more seriously. The New Zealand String Quartet swept us through 20 quartet movements from Opus 1 to 103, revealing just why Haydn is ...

Is the Bay Area really the center of classical music disruption, the region’s favorite term? Last week offered some reasons to think so. There was the news that the San Francisco Symphony had made Esa ...

Across the week Donald Macleod enjoys a masterclass in string quartet writing, from one of the great masters of the form. From his opus 0 and opus 1 of the 1750s to his unfinished opus 103 of 1803, ...