The Elias Quartet at the Library of Congress

If, like any sensible person, you love the string quartets of Joseph Haydn with a passion beyond all reason, you would have done well to be at the Library of Congress on Friday night. The Elias Quartet -- a young-ish, much-admired outfit out of Britain -- was in town, and opened their rather spectacular recital with the Quartet in F major op. 77, no. 2: the last (and maybe the greatest) quartet Haydn ever wrote.