The Op. 33 String Quartets were written by Joseph Haydn in the summer and Autumn of 1781 for the Viennese publisher Artaria. This set of string quartets has several nicknames, the most common of which is the “Russian” quartets, because Haydn dedicated the quartets to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia and many (if not all) of the quartets were premiered on Christmas Day, 1781, at the Viennese apartment of the Duke’s wife, the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. The “Russian” quartets were some of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s favourite works by Haydn and in 1785 Mozart dedicated six string quartets to Haydn in admiration of the quartet

The Vivace assai begins with a galant cadence: a musical equivalent of a bow or curtsey, whose rhythm also prompted the nineteenth-century English nickname ‘How do you do?’. It initiates a movement of almost symphonic boldness and drive, with quasi-orchestral textures created by double stopping and pounding repeated bass notes. This moment of lyric repose is mirrored at the centre of the contrapuntally vigorous development, where the second theme reappears in E minor before deflecting to new keys. True to form, Haydn continues to spring surprises throughout the recapitulation—a transformation rather than restatement of earlier events—and coda, which begins with a dramatic plunge from G to E flat major and ends teasingly with the ‘How do you do?’ cadence. The slow movement is a soulful, increasingly ornate G minor Largo e cantabile in which the first violin impersonates a tragic operatic heroine. Commentators from Donald Tovey onwards have suggested the influence of Gluck here. More specifically, the opening bars seem like a minor-keyed echo of Orpheus’s Elysian aria ‘Che puro ciel!’ in Orfeo ed Euridice, which Haydn had performed at Eszterháza in 1776. Haydn seems to stick his tongue out in the Scherzo, constantly fooling the listener with displaced accents, and then inserting a malicious pause just when we seem to have found our feet. In extreme contrast, the trio is almost exaggeratedly demure. At the very end Haydn deflates the tragic mood with a single pizzicato twang. Simplicity is also the keynote of the finale, a set of three variations on a lilting siciliano tune. While the variations are essentially decorative, the second has a luminous grace, with that easy fluidity of texture characteristic of Op 33.