String Quartet in E‑Flat Major

While humour is more often than not a core ingredient in Haydn’s quartet writing, the String Quartet No. 30 (Op.33/2) has gained a particular reputation for musical witticism and is commonly referred to as “The Joke”. The opening movement is more genial than jokey in tone, with largely good-natured conversational exchanges between the instruments. The “Scherzo” echoes a boot-stomping peasant dance, with a delicious imitation of a rustic fiddler in the trio, complete with tipsy-sounding note scoops. Unusually, the slow movement opens with a duet for viola and cello, a plangent melody periodically interrupted by slicing chords suggestive of dissension. Any whiff of conflict is dissipated by the scampering high spirits of the finale. The joke of the quartet’s title comes at the end: Haydn repeatedly tempts the unsuspecting listener to assume the music is over, only for it to unexpectedly start up again.