String Quartets, Op. 76

Joseph Haydn's string quartets, Op. 76, composed in 1796 and 1797, were commissioned by and dedicated to Count Joseph Erdödy. The six quartets are the last complete set that Haydn composed. At the time of the commission, Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy II; around the same time he composed his annual mass for Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterházy and the oratorio The Creation. Although the quartets were completed by 179... more

Joseph Haydn's string quartets, Op. 76, composed in 1796 and 1797, were commissioned by and dedicated to Count Joseph Erdödy. The six quartets are the last complete set that Haydn composed. At the time of the commission, Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nicolaus Esterházy II; around the same time he composed his annual mass for Princess Maria Hermenegild Esterházy and the oratorio The Creation. Although the quartets were completed by 1797, shown by accounts of visitors hearing them performed in early 1797, because of an exclusivity agreement with Count Erdödy, they were not published until 1799. Correspondence between Haydn and his publishers reveal that there was confusion regarding the release of his quartets; the composer promised the London publishing house of Messrs. Longman Clementi & Co. first publishing rights, but a lack of communication with the firm led Haydn to worry that a Vienna publication might accidentally release the complete set of quartets first, causing... less