Haydn: String Quartets Op.17

Haydn's String Quartets of Opus 17 were written during his most effusively productive period, during his tenure in the service of the Esterhazy family. These string quartets mark Haydn's emergence as an indisputably great composer. They have a seriousness of intent and an increasing mastery of rhetoric and thematic development that are a world away from the lightweight divertimento-quartets that he was formerly producing. They are performed here on period instruments by the dazzling London Haydn Quartet