With its bounding opening Presto in 6/8 time and featherweight finale, the A major quartet that rounds off the Op 9 set is something of a jeu d’esprit. Hunting calls and musette drones give the first movement a delightful alfresco flavour. While the minuet is the most leisurely and galant of the six, the trio, in A minor, is the most sophisticated, quirkily irregular in its phrasing, and teasing the listener with silence and unexpected turns of harmony. The Adagio, a graceful bel canto aria underpinned by murmuring triplets, is yet another vehicle for Tomasini to display his sweet tone and refined taste. For his envoi Haydn writes a fleeting, frolicking Presto in binary dance form, plus a disproportionately long coda (21 bars out of a total of 53) that comically protracts the final cadence.
from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2007
