New Esterházy and Haydn

The New Esterházy Quartet has just finished a busy two-and-a-half year traversal of the complete quartets of Joseph Haydn. But that doesn't mean that this HIP (as in “historically informed performance”) group is resting on its laurels. As a kind of performance postscript to that effort, the NEQ this weekend performs the string quartet music by Haydn that didn't make it into the conventional listing of quartets.

That includes portions of the sublime Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross, seven meditative slow movements commissioned for Holy Week by a canon of Cadiz. The orchestral original was adapted for string quartet (though we're not entirely sure that Haydn did it all by himself), and this version is now the most popular one. There are also arrangements of other works (bits from the oratorios, for example), and an early serenade. For the sake of completeness, they are offered on this concert. But the real reason to make room on your entertainment calendar this weekend, is the Seven Last Words. In the hands of experts, like the NEQ, this wonderful music is an event all by itself.