Haydn: String Quartets Op. 33 Nos 1 3

Virile, colourful performances … sharply responsive to the music's robust earthiness and gleeful unpredictability. On 3 December 1781 Joseph Haydn dictated to his secretary a round robin letter inviting subscriptions to a new set of string quartets. The new Quartets, now know as Opus 33, were dedicated to the Russian Grand Duke Pavel Petrowich (1754-1801), hence their collective nickname. Opus 33 was a great success for Haydn. It was rapidly taken up and re-published in other European capitals, by Hummel in Berlin, by Schmitt in Amsterdam, by Napier and Forster in London, by Guera in Lyons, and by Le Menu and Boyer and then by Sieber in Paris.

“Gut strings and classical bows are also the tools of a captivating quest for sonority”, French magazine Diapason recently wrote to describe the Chiaroscuro Quartet. After Op. 20, Joseph Haydn’s first major string quartet cycle, and Op. 76, his last, the internationally renowned ensemble is now embarking on the Quartets Op. 33, dubbed the “Russian Quartets” and dedicated to the Russian Grand Duke Paul, the future Tsar Paul I.

These performances are every bit as searching and exhilarating as the Lindsay’s previous Haydn recordings for ASV. Theirs is chamber-music-making of unusual recreative flair, untouched by the faintest hint of routine. Many quartets still seem to treat Haydn as an agreeable aperitif to the ostensibly meatier fare later in the programme. But both live and on disc the Lindsay bring to the composer the same dedication and interpretative insight that mark their playing of Beethoven or late Schubert.

The Naxos recordings by the Kodály Quartet are outstanding in every way and would. The performances are superbly shaped, naturally paced and alive; the playing is cultivated, yet it has depth of feeling too, and the group readily communicate their pleasure in this wonderful music. …The digital recording has vivid presence and just the right amount of ambience: the effect is entirely natural.

The Kodaly Quartet are fully worthy of the composer's inexhaustible invention and make a splendid bargain recommendation. Their playing brings joyful pleasure in Haydn's inspiration and there is not the slightest suspicion of over-rehearsal or of routine: every bar of the music springs to life spontaneously, and these musicians' insights bring an ideal combination of authority and warmth, emotional balance and structural awareness.

The Naxos recordings by the Kodály Quartet are outstanding in every way and would. The performances are superbly shaped, naturally paced and alive; the playing is cultivated, yet it has depth of feeling too, and the group readily communicate their pleasure in this wonderful music. …The digital recording has vivid presence and just the right amount of ambience: the effect is entirely natural.

The interpretative temperature of these performances is, as one would expect from The Lindsays, consistently high. So expressively alert, they bring a sense of purpose to every note: sforzandos are arresting and powerful, faster movements are high on adrenalin. Above all, The Lindsays are surely hard to surpass in their delivery of Haydn's slow movements. In the Adagio of No. 2 they sustain a rapturous atmosphere, and that of No. 3 is also wonderfully elevated. There is intense concentration, yet also a directness and warmth that will captivate every listener.

On 5 April 1784 Joseph Haydn wrote to the Viennese music publishers Artaria and Co accepting an offer of three hundred florins for a set of new string quartets, which he thought would be finished that July. In fact Artaria had to wait three years, until July 1787, before they received all six of the set that was to become known as Opus 50.

The Salomon's beautiful playing of these important masterpieces make this set indispensable. The dedication, beauty and vitality of the interpretations are of the highest order … a Haydn monument as important to the 90s as the one by the Pro Arte was to the 30s.