Early Haydn – Australian String Quartet

Westlake and Haydn

Westlake composed his work in memory of his sister. He took several of her paintings with seascapes as a starting point: visual meditations based on unnamed locations on the east coast of Australia. Haydn also knows nature as a source of inspiration; think of the sunrise and the picturesque whale in his oratorio Die Schöpfung.

Does coincidence exist?

The young composing violinist Joseph Haydn – far from 'Papa', rather 'puppy' Haydn – played with three random other string players for the Viennese Count Von Fürnberg. I liked the coincidental harmony so much that Count asked Haydn for more repertoire for this combination. In the following works, Haydn laid the foundation for the string quartet, the medium that has given us so much beautiful music. In the Early Haydn concert series, the classical beauty of Haydn's Opus 33 is in the hands of a different quartet every morning.