He caught on right away, and then he went off and played Haydn.
He grew up in an intellectual family that spent summers at an aunt's country estate and evenings playing Haydn and Bach.
Within two years he was playing Bach, Haydn and Czerny.
Before the ceremony, a string quartet played Haydn.
"I'd happily play Haydn all the time, but the others get bored with repeating the same simple figures."
That said, when a string quartet plays Haydn, it doesn't set out to produce an unvaried copy of what's in the score.
When they play Haydn, they sound like a Haydn orchestra.
As often as he has been heard playing Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, his ideas about them continue to evolve.
"I wanted to play Haydn well."
They tried playing Haydn, for whom Peter had cultivated a preference over Mozart and consequently adored.