Haydn’s String Quartets

Joseph Wolins (1915–1999). The Budapest String Quartet, 1941, oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY

Encounter Lecture II

Haydn’s String Quartets

Haydn’s corpus of nearly seventy string quartets testifies to his standing as the genre’s foundational figure. Without question, the quartets of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and all who have followed over the subsequent two centuries descend from those of Haydn. At this summer’s second Encounter, violinist Aaron Boyd gets under the hood of Haydn’s string quartets, illuminating the composer’s singular ingenuity in this form. This event features live musical illustrations performed by a quartet of festival artists.