|
Like so many of his compatriots, the Czech-born Václav Pichl spent much of his working life in Vienna (where the Empress Maria Theresa, preferred him to Mozart), but with a period working for Dittersdorf (in what is now Rumania) and nearly twenty years spent in Milan.
His compositions were performed at Eszterháza by Haydn, who had a set of Pichl's "new quartets" copied in 1780 (he wrote over 30 quartets in all).
Op. 13, the present set of stylish and skilfully contrasted works were dedicated to Dittersdorf; they exploit all four instruments equally, even the viola being allocated elaborate solo passages, and offer an attractive alternative (as Haydn himself realised) to the standard Viennese works of this period.
|
Descriptive leaflet (pdf)