Haydn had written about ninety symphonies, many of them quite powerful for their time, by 1787 when he published his Op. 50 set of quartets. In the more intimate chamber forms Haydn was oddly less innovative, taking inspiration from Baroque practices. But now with his fiftieth opus he had finally settled into a definitive format for the string quartet, and the E-flat work is a fine example of the new "standard-issue" Haydn quartet. The first movement, Allegro con brio, is based entirely on a good-natured, dance-like tune of short phrases, first separated by quick breaths and then passed swiftly and conversationally from one violin to the other. Haydn builds the tune into an increasingly complex variation on itself, forcing it to serve as its own second subject. The development includes a brief contrapuntal passage, and throughout assigns interesting material to all four instruments, not just the first violin. Haydn craftily offers a false ending immediately after the recapitulation, but after a brief pause brings back the tune for a short coda. The Andante piuttosto allegretto is a long series of variations on a single, wandering theme. It's introduced over the eighteenth century equivalent of a "walking bass" (but bowed, not plucked), although the accompaniment does soon develop into more flowing countermelodies. The variations offer only minimal contrast with the original theme, except for re-coloring it by shifting between B flat major and minor. Haydn by now has assigned the minuet its permanent place between the slow movement and the finale. This minuet is faintly rustic, with a rough, bottom-heavy phrase answered by a more suave, violin-centered passage. The trio section, oddly, is essentially a more courtly, embellished, and somewhat contrapuntal version of the main minuet tune. The concluding Presto is full of low-key wit, based on a tune of two quick ascending notes and a twisting gesture, seemingly repeated a step or two higher ad infinitum. This is the entire basis of a short development section and a clipped recapitulation, one of Haydn's typically monothematic sonata movements. Humorously, the coda has the tune make a long, gradual descent down the scale, folding up into three soft, final chords.



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