Haydn Quartett

This warmly recorded, naturally balanced disc is delightful. The Minetti Quartet offers three late Haydn masterpieces, played with plenty of high spirits and, in the slow movements, a fresh songfulness (both Opp. 64's and 76's are marked "cantabile") that's most affecting. There's practically nothing to criticize here. Highlights include the really zippy final prestos of Opp. 64 and 76, and the intense Largo assai of the "Rider" quartet. In the finale of the latter, the group's articulation is a touch clipped in the main theme, and as a result the music doesn't quite speak as it should, but better too much energy than too little. The minuet (really a scherzo) of Op. 76 also is terrific, smooth as silk until Haydn's disruptive syncopation sets in. If you're looking for a very attractive single-disc collection of late Haydn quartets, I can recommend this without hesitation. Playing time is a bit short–under an hour–so there was still room for another full quartet, but if this doesn't concern you terribly, then go for it.

Haydn himself was in a particularly heightened state of awareness when he commenced writing his Op. 33 String Quartets, even going so far as to suggest in a letter to music-loving friends that these quartets were 'composed in an entirely new and special way'. It had been ten years since he last wrote for the medium (his Op. 20), and he had learned many things since that time, producing a series of wonderful symphonies and a number of operas.

In this new recording the prestigious Tetzlaff Quartett presents a program of String Quartets by Franz Schubert and Joseph Haydn in exemplary performances. Praised by The New York Times for their “dramatic, energetic playing of clean intensity”, the Tetzlaff Quartett is one of today’s leading string quartets. Alongside their successful individual careers, Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff, Hanna Weinmeister and Elisabeth Kufferath have met since 1994 to perform several times each season in concerts that regularly receive great critical acclaim.

The Alban Berg Quartet excel in 18th-century repertory and the Franz Josef Haydn found here makes up an especially excellent example of this ensemble’s playing. The music is great, too: the two late Op. 77 Quartets quartets are what I believe are the finest examples he penned in this genre.

Es wurde 1939 zunächst unter dem Namen Sudetendeutsches Quartett gegründet, später in Prager Streichquartett umbenannt. Es bestand aus Mitgliedern der Deutschen Philharmonie in Prag (1939–1945), die auf Befehl von Joseph Goebbels gegründet worden war. 1947 nahm es den Namen Koeckert-Quartett an, nach seinem 1. Violinisten Rudolf Koeckert (1913–2005). Seit 1949 residierte das Quartett in München, und die Mitglieder waren Solisten des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks.