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     In 1765 Nicolaus Esterházy “the Magnificent,” ruling prince of one of Hungary’s most distinguished noble families, issued a reprimand to his Kapellmeister Joseph Haydn, urging the latter to “apply himself to composition more diligently than heretofore, and especially to write such pieces as can be played upon the [baryton], of which pieces we have seen very few up to now.” Nicolaus, the second of four Esterházy princes served by Haydn between 1761 and the composer’s death in 1809 and arguably his most enthusiastic patron, secured by this demand a fascinating, if often-overlooked, sub-genre within Haydn’s oeuvre: works for baryton that included 123 “divertimenti” for baryton, cello and viola. It is these pieces that, for many in the classical world otherwise unfamiliar with the instrument, cause mention of the word “baryton” to immediately elicit thoughts of Haydn’s musically productive relationship with Nicolaus. But it was also a demand that may have drawn Haydn away from other work; David Wyn Jones has called the prince’s order “one of the most indulgently self-interested [requests] in the history of patronage.”

     The present disk, the second FofM recording in this series, presents six more of these inventive works, which served not only for Prince Esterházy's amusement, but as a workshop for Haydn's ever fecund invention to grpple with compositional issues that would emerge in the nearly-contemporary string quartets of Op. 9, Op. 17, and Op. 20.