Serenade

Note from the arranger

Hofstetter, my compatriot Bavarian, was a Catholic priest. In-depth theoretical and practical studies of music was a mandatory element of the upbringing of clerics from the gentry of his time, and Hofstetter played the viola excellently. And like many musicians of his generation he eagerly studied the works of Haydn, who was developing into a kind of early “celebrity” composer. This may also be the reason why Hofstetter somewhat emulated Haydn’s style in his own compositions. Due to this similarity in style, Parisian publisher Antoine Bailleux, published a series of six string quartets by Hofstetter as Op. 3 by Haydn, expecting to a achieve higher sales using the well-known name. Probably neither of the authors was aware of this.