The Quatuor Ebène plays Haydn Op. 20/2

[@chrishaller1226]

I played in some quartets some time ago, My father was in one for many years. This is what one strives for. Guys thank you THANK YOU for your perfection, your joy and excellence. Your true harmony together, your interpretation is SUCH a joy to watch. You are by FAR my favourite quartet Please keep on doing this - it encourages the young musicians to follow in your foot steps

[@johncerella2127]

0:00 Moderato 7:25 Adagio 14:20 Minuetto : Allegretto 17:55 Fuga a 4 soggett

[@laurentkompf5638]

Le quatuor à cordes. La perfection indépassable

[@pvisockas]

Last week I had the privilege to watch their concert and when a friend or colleague ask me about how was it, I explain with an exemple : if the string quartets ensembles where a color pencil case, the ensembles of students would a case with 4 or 5 colors. The professional quartets, 12 to 15 colors. The top Internacional quartets, 25 to 30. Ebène would be a case with 60 or more colors. Not only they play together, but as ensemble they do it with love and respect to each note. They bring colors and lines you normally don't hear or noted. They are a great inspiration for me and for lots of students and professionals! Well, I guess for anyone who likes music :)

[@alvaromone1]

The best version about this haydn’s quartet in KZbin. Great string quartet!👌🏼

[@barbarastewart9521]

Have only just discovered this amazing quartet. I think their interpretation brings the music alive more than anything else I've ever heard. The second mvt is outstanding. Melodrama followed by sublimity!

[@cameronandcarey2084]

Plus they have a LOT of great body language.

[@the0therethan]

I love the sound texture of the lower voices here 👏

[@Rx-mn5fv]

Simply great Quartet playing! A wonderful unison performance with a beautiful blending of tones. Bravo!

[@s.a.somersault3973]

4:45 At this point, I just felt... the force.😏 Insane piece and even better performance!🤩

[@willemfrische3124]

What a delightful performance by a brilliant String Quartet!!!

[@charlesdoria2290]

Amazing piece, played like a true conversation with all appropriate accents and intonations

[@foxmulder8955]

4:44 star wars force theme

[@luisalbertosanchezoblitas1534]

Omgosh

[@gemmavice2243]

wowowow that's so cool

[@jimp4170]

Haydn could be so weird sometimes. And by that I mean so wonderful.

[@richtrophicherbs6463]

what have people got against Haydn? Transcendent genius.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

richtrophicherbs Not sure that’s a particularly widespread opinion around the world, in fact, it’s quite an odd statement to make and certainly not one that is held by anyone who knows anything about music. You are quite right though with the second sentence: Haydn is a genuine ‘A’ list composer and his 68 string quartets are quite simply, one of the absolute pinnacles and reference points of western classical music.

[@leonhardeuler6811]

@@elaineblackhurst1509 (Hello again lol) Perhaps it's because he is constantly being compared with craftsmen like Beethoven and Mozart. Of course, any composer compared to these two will seem like "lesser" composers.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

@@leonhardeuler6811 A belated Happy New Year. What you have written - presumably in provocative and playful jest - is of course nonsense! 1. Haydn loses nothing as a craftsman in comparison with Mozart - who says so? Mozart, Beethoven, & myself for starters. 2. Beethoven is not relevant- he’s from the next age. Comparing Haydn (or Mozart) to Beethoven is like comparing Beethoven to Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, or Chopin, et al - as pointless as it is anachronistic. 3. In his standard text on the music of the period ‘The Classical Style’, Charles Rosen wrote of Haydn during his ‘sturm und drang’ period in the early 1770’s that he was writing music: ‘...on a level that no other composer of Haydn’s time could equal or even approach’. This view has never been challenged, and includes Mozart. In short, you cannot include Haydn in with your ‘lesser composers’, a notion Mozart right up to his death would have regarded as being as ridiculous as I do. I do think you might be in the right area about Haydn not being fully understood; most people make judgements about the composer based on knowledge of less than 5% of his compositions; for Mozart and Beethoven, that figure probably rises sometimes as high as about 20% In short: the majority of casual classical music lovers are in no position to make judgements about Haydn at all, and certainly not to make any meaningful judgemental comparisons. In other words, oceans of ignorance dwarf little puddles of knowledge.* Hope that gives you something fresh to think about during these difficult lockdown times. * I am of course talking about objective assessments of the quality of the music; personal subjective preferences and favourites are no business of mine or anyone else, and are a completely different thing.

[@leonhardeuler6811]

@@elaineblackhurst1509 It's always a joy to be proven wrong by you! Yes, I see my mistake. I myself have yet to hear the many masterpieces by Haydn barring the common pieces like "Creation" and his late symphonies. I've read one of your past comments which said something along the lines of "Haydn was the last great contrapuntalist", I very much agree. May I ask, do you have any musical education? You write and have the knowledge of a scholar. Happy New year!

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

@@leonhardeuler6811 Up to the age of 18, I went through the ABRSM piano exams in England, up to Grade 8, I did the theory too; I would therefore describe myself as an adequate pianist. I am currently on a Scarlatti binge and learning K427, K460, and K481, and trying to get K113 up to speed. I began on Schumann’s Waldszenen Op 82 last year and am about half way through; I am trying to move from playing the notes, to playing the music, of Haydn’s sonata in b minor Hob. XVI:32. My next challenge will be Beethoven’s d minor sonata Op 31 No 2 (‘The Tempest’). I have also sung in a wide range of choral and operatic music. My first degree was in History, I therefore have some experience in using sources, information, evidence and such like to draw proper scientifically based conclusions. I am not however a scholar. My main interest, knowledge, and expertise lies in the music of the Classical period (c.1750 - 1800), and this is the area in which you will find most of my comments. That said, I have some knowledge of the Baroque, and enjoy music from most other periods. It is an absolute rule that I only write on matters on which I am competent to give an opinion - in short, if I make a point, then it is worth considering. I would never comment on anyones’s personal favourites, or likes and dislikes - like food, that’s personal and none of my business. I do comment when people start confusing and conflating opinions with facts which then mislead casual listeners: ‘...sounds like Beethoven’ - a comment I saw relating to a CPE Bach symphony (it categorically did not!) absolutely needed challenging because it was misleading nonsense. ‘...Mozart’s greatest symphony’ - often attached to Symphonies like 25 or 31; such pronouncements are simply ridiculous - you may as well add in Ein musikalischer Spass. However, if these - or similar works - are personal favourites, I would make no comment. Otherwise, I try to help listeners understand better the context and meaning of music in which they are interested. A couple of examples relate to Haydn and Beethoven: the almost identical tonal journey across four movements of Haydn’s Symphony 95 and Beethoven’s Symphony 5 - written about a decade later - should be understood before hyperbolic comments are made about Beethoven’s ‘new’ or ‘revolutionary’ ideas. Similarly, Haydn had already brought back the Minuet in the Finale of his Symphony 46, so Beethoven doing so in his 5th symphony was not quite as new as some think. (Note: what Beethoven did with these ideas *was* new and revolutionary). The nonsense about Haydn allegedly advising Beethoven not to publish, and disliking, the c minor piano trio Opus 1 No 3 is another example where sloppy scholarship becomes the accepted wisdom and needs challenging; the story of Beethoven’s alleged fall-out with Haydn over the controversial trio is surrounded by a string of half-truths and inaccuracies. Fact: the trio had already been published in Vienna *before* Haydn got back from his second trip to England - where does that leave the story about Haydn telling Beethoven not to publish the work ? Haydn scholarship, and therefore our knowledge and understanding of the composer has developed probably more in the past 75 years than any other composer of comparable stature; high quality recordings using clean Urtext scores of almost all the composer’s works have been a revelation, and have also contributed to this re-assessment of Haydn’s position which today, is better, and more fully understood than at any time since his death. These developments in Haydn studies have therefore thrown new light on our understanding of Mozart and Beethoven in particular, and led to a re-evaluation of many commonly held, but poorly evidenced traditional views. It’s always useful to keep things factually disciplined; it enhances one’s understanding and appreciation of the music, especially if you want to listen to and understand a work a little more deeply than just treating it as aural wallpaper (which is ok too!). Lockdowns around the world are giving us all perhaps a little more time than is good for us to indulge in our little hobbies.

[@renaldtremblay8333]

Toujours impeccable! Merci!

[@richtrophicherbs]

stunning

[@andrewbreslin8298]

The amazing op 20 quartets were the beginning of the deepest musical genre (imo) this just shows why... such depth.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

Haydn’s Opus 20 was one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of Western classical music; it defined the form, and set a standard by which every composer of string quartets ever since has been measured. In short - you’re absolutely right. En passant, the 10 ‘divertimenti a quattro’ Opus 0(sic), 1, and 2, along with the sets of six Opus 9, and Opus 17, are all worth seeking out and are also very fine. Haydn’s astonishing development over a short period of time is illustrated by the dates of composition of these major sets: Opus 9 - c.1769 Opus 17 - 1770/71 Opus 20 1772

[@bob90th]

Go out of my way to avoid Haydn, wouldn't have listened to this if it weren't for my guys the Quatuor Ebene...what a performance, full of character and distinction! I love the passages with minimal vibrato, so clean and fresh.

[@hhschrader8067]

well-said - avoiding Haydn & clean and fresh - both

[@jimp4170]

A life without any Haydn is sad indeed.

[@nachomarino8879]

Someone who has an intentional way to avoid Haydn is obviously the kind of person for whom this music was written 😂

[@bob90th]

@@nachomarino8879 I have repented of my foolishness and am a convert now.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

bob90th A proper appreciation of Haydn has the additional benefit of increasing your knowledge and understanding of both Mozart and Beethoven. Probably worth pointing out that both Mozart and Beethoven went out of their way to learn from Haydn (Beethoven copied out the whole of Haydn’s Opus 20 No 1 for study purposes). Perhaps you’re missing something - or maybe Mozart and Beethoven got it wrong - and they would have been better taking your advice to ‘…go out of [their] way to avoid Haydn’ - after all, what do they know ?

[@jeanpierrel2708]

Quelle interpretation!!!

[@karlwinkler66]

Very nice interpretation of this work - your intonation and tone are just excellent! The phrasing is interesting and engaging. Bravo!

[@1934mace]

Thrilling performances! I much prefer the single camera. Maybe an age thing? I'm 82.

[@ferdinangenius]

Hope you are alive to enjoy this magnificent reading of a superb quartet

[@michaels7889]

This brilliant performance has brought out some very interesting remarks in the comments. It is not an easy quartet to play well let alone interpret to this standard.

[@Rickriquinho]

This is a miracle!

[@hugovlugter]

Absolutely smashing! Beautiful conversations Bravo

[@lorettabasedow7028]

One of my fav swan lake comps 🖤🖤👌

[@charlesdoria2290]

Possibly the best performance of a Haydn string quartet, except for Budapest quartet from the 30s @ 40s imo

[@gerardbegni2806]

The quartets op. 2à are told "of the sun" because a sun illyutrated the cover of their edition. They are consudere as the first masterpieces of Haydn in terms of quartets - and so many are to come! . Especially the musicologists draw the attention on the finale, which are often contrapunctal. The quatuor Ebene gives us a very lisible and aattractive vision of this quartet "of the sun" N° 2.

[@javierescobar-vidal1473]

Sin palabras... asombroso!!

[@urmorph]

The score at imslp.org is listed as String Quartet in C Major, Hob.III:32. I guess any catalog is better than none.

[@jimp4170]

The Haydn quartets are traditionally identified by their opus numbers. What kind of psycho memorizes the Hoboken catalogue numbers?

[@urmorph]

Maybe someone from New Jersey?

[@hugovlugter]

Now we know where Astor Piazzola got his Fuga and Mysterio from

[@nadiadesimone9853]

li adoro

[@wuyipiano]

Heavenly

[@petercrosland5502]

200+ year plus composition for 400+ year plus instruments. where else do you turn? I have swapped my allegiance from Beethoven to Haydn years ago, all the joy, none of the psychotic episodes. Where the World is now you can learn much from the simple joy. 1001 reasons why the industrial revolution was not all it was made out to be.

[@MrJijou33]

10.53 paradise..

[@waltermayr339]

Welch ein Vergnügen diesem Quartett zuzuhören. Phantastische Gestaltung, klanglich wunderbar sauber, dazu ist es, als könne man Haydn beim Denken zuhören.

[@howardchasnoff208]

Different concept but sort of interesting. Lots of unison passages. If you play this the quartet's intonation better be perfect. Second movement is played like a recitative or s freely interpreted cadenza-like section without s strict beat. The last movement is a fugue but their speed and concentration on rhythmic sequences makes it very un Bach like. I wonder if that was the intention.

[@arwenzib7894]

10:48

[@robertfrankgill5962]

A weird acceleration at 16:12. Is this in the score?

[@jimp4170]

If I recall, those notes have wedges above them in the score. It's up to the performer to decide how to interpret that. Most people generally take that as separated and slightly accented, but people have different ideas as to what separate and accented mean. I'm not sure I agree with their interpretation here, but I don't think it could be called incorrect.

[@ferdinangenius]

These guys take some liberties in terms of timing, intonation and phrasing, sometimes almost at the fringe of abandoning the score, but the result is interesting and refreshing.

[@arwenzib7894]

10：48

[@davehshs651]

Really beautiful playing, wonderful musicianship. It's a shame that more people don't see your festival videos. HINT: The overwhelming gray and darkness of the stage setting and the single camera that never changes focus make it much less appealing to the average viewer. Check out videos by the Zagreb Chamber Music Festival. There's a lot more light and color in their videos, and they use multiple cameras that change the view frequently, often focusing on a a closeup of a single musician. Their videos are much easier to watch. Wishing you well!

[@plumb.474]

Much prefer single camera...watching them communicate, interact w/ea other adds to the overall dimensionality...bravo camera person!

[@tomboyer5608]

Highly original and risk-taking performance, but I think maybe it goes too far -- I feel like it takes us a little bit away from Haydn. The rubatos, the extreme contrasts of volume and tone. Op. 20 No. 2 is a very special quartet, really one of the foundations of quartet playing, extremely personal and emotional for music written at that time -- prefigures German romanticism. We do not know what Haydn was going through in his life, but the music suggests some emotional turmoil. The middle movements are simply astonishing -- the raw heart-break of the second movement followed by the sunshine and perhaps laughter of the third. I don't think the Ebene performance really captures the sadness of the second, and the third is played for grotesqueness instead of sunshine. It's admirable effort, and of course the Ebene is technically wonderful, but in the end I don't think it conveys the emotional arc of the music.

[@brkahn]

As you write, we do not know what Haydn was going through in his life, so it is hard to extrapolate. Moreover, this quartet corresponds precisely to the period of Sturm und Drang. The Ebène chose to stress the operatic aspect of the second movement (operatic in a Mozartian sense), and I think it is as fair a choice as the other, more interiorized. I don't hear grotesqueness in the third movement as you do, but rather a ray of light coming after the Sturm. All in all, I don't think we can say what interpreters should or should not express in their rendition, especially as 1) such feeling is personal and subjective and 2) there is no programme from the part of the composer here.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

Tom Boyer Some really interesting points which I enjoyed reading, though I must quibble with the reference to ‘...prefigured German Romanticism’. This music was written in 1772 during what is termed Haydn’s ‘sturm und drang’ period. The name was first used in relation to music in the early 20th century, but the original literary sturm und drang post-dates the musical one. For Haydn, there is a problem: Sturm und drang is often linked to the word ‘romantic’ in the literary sense; I think it is misleading when retrospectively and anachronistically applied to music. Sturm und drang is a useful label to describe some particular aspects of music written c.1765 - 1775 mainly in Vienna, nothing more. This music is quintessentially Classical, there is absolutely nothing of the ‘romantic’ in it, nor is there in almost anything by Haydn, nor Mozart either - it is an entirely alien concept from the future, indeed from a different branch of the arts. Both Mozart and Haydn had a complete musical language of their own, fully capable of expressing all the musical emotions they wished to convey. Additionally, Haydn’s music ‘prefigures’ nothing, he is not John the Baptist to some Jesus Christ of German Romanticism as though that movement were the promised Messiah of music. However, again like Mozart, he was massively influential. Prefigures as I have suggested, undervalues the composer prefiguring another; does Beethoven prefigure Brahms? I think not, Beethoven too is complete in his own right. Opus 20 is one of the great turning points in the history of western classical music; in truth, it defined what was a string quartet from its first composition in 1772, up to the present day. I have picked up on one point about the romanticism, as I said, the rest of your review was interesting reading.

[@tomboyer5608]

@Ubiquitary Yes, and as I said I really love the Ebene, but this one maybe crosses the boundary of drawing attention to the performances at the expense of the composer. I feel like their treatment of the 2nd and 3rd movements -- I'm not sure I'm hearing enough Haydn though the mannered and glossy Ebene performance.

[@frillydaffodilly]

@@elaineblackhurst1509back in the day - the term sturm und drang was only used to describe literature. It was never used to describe music- see Clive McLelland’s writing on the subject. As for this performnce many things to like as dislike. Main issues are first movement ensemble problems, the rubatos dont make sense, first violinist needs to learn to play slurs smoothly rather than playing them as portato. The fugue - which are always academic exercises is RIDICULOUSLY fast. What a nonsense. Shame.

[@elaineblackhurst1509]

@@frillydaffodilly I’ve written extensively elsewhere about the use of the term ‘sturm und drang’ as applied to music which actually only began in the early 20th century; additionally of course, the musical sturm und drang actually precedes the literary one by some years. The musical characteristics of sturm und drang are very clearly identifiable (once again I have written detailed descriptions elsewhere); the term is useful to summarise these features in just three words. Matters of tempi always cause debate. The trend today is generally towards quicker, and to my ears, many older performances (up to the 1980’s for example) of 18th century music seem ploddingly slow; it’s a fair point though that some performances today - both modern and period - are simply too rapid.

[@arwenzib7894]

11:40

[@arwenzib7894]

12:25

[@arwenzib7894]

12:40

[@arwenzib7894]

13:51

[@arwenzib7894]

14:19

[@arwenzib7894]

14:29