String Quartet, Op. 9, No. 4, Haydn's first in a minor mode, is perhaps the world's first great string quartet. Before it, all other quartets were mere divertimenti a quattro. Its first theme is romantic, disturbing like an impending thunderstorm. But Haydn takes us from the rain and shifts his focus to rhetorical thunder. He astounds with passages of rapidfire ornamentation. He returns to the theme but brightens it by playing it in a neighboring and not-as-dark key. The minuet contains delicious pauses and dips in tempo, as thrilling as the first seconds of a roller coaster ride. There is a shockingly dissonant passage two minutes and 45 seconds into the movement, but one that should be played with such controlled grace that audiences will be doubly amazed. For the adagio cantabile the first violin floats us down a reposeful summer stream. Rather than a showpiece for a pretty monothematic melody, Haydn creates subtle and intriguing variations, treating the ensemble as full-blooded participants, not just accompanists. The finale, while not as emotionally resonant as the first movement, has its own wealth of musical ideas and never lets up its steeplechase pace.

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