String Quartet in D minor "Fifths", Op. 76 No. 2, Hob.III:76

The second of Haydn's six Op. 76 quartets, composed in 1797 for Count Joseph Erdődy and one of the finest products of his late maturity. The "Fifths" nickname derives from the opening theme of the first movement, in which the first violin's falling minor fifth is imitated and inverted throughout the movement in a tour de force of motivic economy. The Andante or poco adagio second movement is one of Haydn's most searching slow movements; the Minuet contains a trio of uncanny chromatic strangeness; and the finale generates remarkable energy from a simple dance-like theme.