Mozart acknowledged how difficult writing for string quartet could be when he dedicated a set to the father of the nascent genre, Joseph Haydn, saying "They are...the fruit of a long and laborious study." Haydn had created the "string quartet" about 30 years before Mozart's work in the genre, and others (including Ignaz Pleyel in 1784) had paid similar homage to Papa Haydn.
Our Featured Album this week is Cuarteto Casals playing three of the six quartets dedicated to Haydn, by Mozart.
Sample some of Cuarteto Casals' earlier recordings of Mozart here:
