Trois Quatuors pour deux violons, alto et basse. Composés et Dediés a Sa Majesté Frederic Guilleaume II Roi de Prusse [..] Oeuvre XXIX. Libro I.

Berlin: J. J. Hummel. [1788]. First German edition. Parts: Violin I (15 pp), Violin II (11 pp), Viola (11 pp), Cello (11 pp). Each with an elaborate title page illustration. Engraved. [PN] 636. The part for first violin a little rough along the outer edge with a small repaired tear to margin, otherwise in very fine condition throughout. Hoboken III.44-46.


Book I of the Haydn quartets, Opus 50, No. 1-3, now known as the "Prussian Quartets." Composed in 1787 to honor King Frederic William II, who had succeeded to the Prussian throne the prior year, this volume includes the quartets in B flat major, C major, and E flat major. This edition dates from the year following the original publication by Artaria and is the first German publication of these works. It replicates the striking illustrated title of the original edition (printed on every part), bordered by garlands and crowned at the head with the Hohenzollern coat of arms, flanked on both sides by crowned eagles.


This group of quartets shows an increasing richness of expression combined with a "greater contrapunctal richness." As with Mozart's "Prussian" quartets K. 575, 589 and 590, particular attention is paid here by Haydn to the cello part, this being the instrument of the King. "The solo cello passages placed as a tactful homage to the royal amateur call forth the complementary displays from the other instruments, the long solo for second violin at the opening of the slow movement of Op. 50 no. 2 being perhaps the most remarkable." (Charles Rosen, "The Classical Style," p. 138) (9092)

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