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 fact that some of the music was performed in Vienna for the future Tsar Paul I. “Gli scherzi” notes that all of the minuets carry the description “Scherzo”. And “Maiden” connects with the title-page design of an early publisher.
Two of the individual quartets have English nicknames. No 2 is known as the Joke because of its still-effective fake ending, No 3 as the Bird because of its chirpy material.
The Chiaroscuro Quartet’s new recordings of the first three of the set could suggest others, based on the extremes of gutsiness and delicacy in the playing, and sometimes startlingly high dynamic contrasts that are in line with the composer’s own preferences.
Haydn, no mean self-publicist, claimed to have written the works in “a new, quite special way”. The Chiaroscuro’s approach is typically fresh, vibrato-light and, often, astonishingly virtuosic, with a sustained, tap-dancing-like nimbleness that can take your breath away.
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The upward scoops of portamento in the second movement of the Joke leave me cold, but the general wit and anti-earnestness make these performances highly appealing.
