Music: A Crush on Haydn

Violinist Alexander Schneider, 43, has had a crush on Haydn for 22 years. As a young man, he and three other musicians sat for most of two days and nights playing all of the old master's 83 string quartets, while friends fed and watered them. Vilna-born "Sasha" Schneider has always wanted to repeat the performance—at leisure—for a public audience. Last week he and his new Schneider Quartet wrapped up a cycle of 16 concerts—some 40 hours of music in all—with Haydn's seven quartet interludes for the Lenten season, The Seven Last Words of Christ.*

From Violinist Schneider, his followers have learned to...