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Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 20
performed from the Artaria edition published in Vienna in 1801
The London Haydn Quartet: Catherine Manson (violin), Michael Gurevich (violin), James Boyd (viola) & Richard Lester (cello)
Awards:
-
Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011, Editor's Choice
this recording maintains their historically informed, period instrument approach. Once again, preparation has been meticulous...The almost vibrato-less playing is immaculate in intonation and...
Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 20
performed from the Artaria edition published in Vienna in 1801
The London Haydn Quartet: Catherine Manson (violin), Michael Gurevich (violin), James Boyd (viola) & Richard Lester (cello)
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011, Editor's Choice
this recording maintains their historically informed, period instrument approach. Once again, preparation has been meticulous...The almost vibrato-less playing is immaculate in intonation and...
About
Haydn’s remarkable Opus 20 quartets are rightfully regarded as landmarks in the history of the string quartet.
Throughout the six contrasting quartets the composer employs compositional techniques that were to shape and define the genre.
We witness a deviation in style from the lightness and wit of his previous quartets to a mood of emotional intensity and darker musical imagery. The six Opus 20 works are all individually exquisite masterpieces and demonstrate a composer at the height of creative maturity. They display an astonishing consistency of excellence and a huge variety of form and style, contrasting dynamics and relentless energy. Increasingly polyphonic textures are infused with a sense of drama, and the cello is often freed from its basso continuo roots to a position of prominence.
The London Haydn Quartet is the ideal advocate for these works and gives elegant, radiant and exhilaratingly assured performances.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
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Gramophone MagazineAwards Issue 2011Editor's Choice
December 2011
this recording maintains their historically informed, period instrument approach. Once again, preparation has been meticulous...The almost vibrato-less playing is immaculate in intonation and subtly responsive to shifts and contrasts of Haydn's invention.
November 2011
The young ensemble plays on authentic gut strings with classical bows. Their thin, supple tone brings out Haydn's melodic line...The commitment of this string quartet to one composer pays off. Their wiry, period tone suits Haydn's melodious, down-to-earth writing. They capture [his] urbane wit and complex intelligence
Awards Issue 2011
provocative interpretations - of enthralling magnitude.
1st September 2011
Using gut strings, classical bows and a bare minimum of vibrato, and making a point of using the Artaria edition of the works that Haydn himself supervised for publication in 1801, their performances often seem strikingly austere, and will not be to all tastes; they sometimes have a rawness that harks back to the early hair-shirt days of the period-instrument movement
