Eugene Sauzay said that Haydn's Opus 9 quartets "with their perfect proportions and graceful form show a greater development of Haydn's artistic genius." However, these proportions are not "perfect" throughout. The rather dry first movement (moderato) is rather dry. The minuet is intriguing because, despite Haydn's sparse melodic material, he develops it in an intriguing fashion; in other words, he does much with very little. In the adagio Haydn gave the first violin a lovely passages, a siciliano that should be performed with a dollop of sublimity: the repeats should be varied ever so slightly. The transformation the melody undergoes is more due to Haydn's keen grasp of dynamics than his usual outbursts of ornamentation. The finale, despite its rollicking thirty-second notes and carnivalesque ascents, is actually unexciting, partly because Haydn hasn't yet learned how to end his quartets. However, Haydn manages to convey a passing sense of fun.

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