Eric Hoeprich / London Haydn Quartet CARL MARIA VON WEBER - FRANZ KROMMER Clarinet Quintets

CLARINET QUINTETS

The London Haydn Quartet HAYDN String Quartets Opp. 71 & 74

The London Haydn Quartet's cycle of Haydn string quartets has combined several distinctive features. The recordings have used a variety of editions from Haydn's own time, theoretically offering a more detailed idea of Haydn's intentions than do those drawing on 19th century traditions. The 1796 editions used here don't contain anything earthshaking, but they contain small details of dynamics that close listeners will find fresh. Even better, the approach of the London Haydn Quartet matches these editions. The approach is detailed and rather dry, using gut strings and period bows, and it clearly elucidates the intricate structure of the opening movements of the Op. 71 and Op. 74 quartets, several of which open with a single simple kernel that is profoundly elaborated. The London Haydn Quartet steers clear of the usual jocular Haydn persona, and you may find the minuets lacking in wit. Sample and determine for yourself (the Minuet and Trio of the String Quartet in F major, Op. 74, No. 2, is representative), but it's easy to see why the quartet's Haydn recordings are finding a niche in the marketplace. (James Manheim)

The London Haydn Quartet HAYDN String Quartets op. 64

‘He has taste, and the most profound knowledge of composition.’ It’s supremely fitting that Haydn paid his great tribute to Mozart at a quartet party, and there can’t be many chamber music lovers who haven’t tried to imagine what sort of playing Haydn actually heard that night in Vienna – and what that ‘taste’ represented. The question comes up again with the latest release in the London Haydn Quartet’s Haydn cycle for Hyperion. Reviewing the LHQ’s Op 50 set in 2016 I found their performances ‘civilised, carefully prepared and spacious to a T’, and nothing here makes me revise that. These are period-instrument performances, played from an early London edition. Development section repeats are observed, and tempos are on the broad side.

The impact of these choices is most marked in the B minor Quartet (No 2). The LHQ’s first movement is reflective and questioning, though I don’t think anyone could describe it (as Haydn does) as spiritoso. The Adagio goes to some genuinely deep places and the Minuet, taken at low speed, becomes a lilting, bittersweet pastorale. Well, Haydn contains multitudes, and while the group’s habit of stretching the top of a phrase gives the opening movement of No 4 a slightly seasick quality, it gives the brisker finales a genuinely improvisatory feeling. The finale of No 5 (the Lark) is often dispatched as a flashy moto perpetuo; here it breathes, and in doing so becomes a sort of gypsy dance.

Elsewhere, finales are crisply articulated with plenty of dancelike bounce – the final Prestos of Nos 1 and 6 being wonderfully buoyant cases in point. So there’s plenty of character here (the performance of the undervalued No 3 in B flat is particularly coherent and engaging) as well as many qualities which, again, will come down to taste. You might prefer a sweeter violin tone than Catherine Manson’s in the opening melody of the Lark; you might share my misgivings about the pungent vibrato-free portamentos and you might wish that the group had let the exquisite slow movements of Nos 4, 5 and 6 unfurl a little more songfully.

But this is domestic music, after all, and perhaps a certain amount of understatement actually enhances the boldness of Haydn’s invention. Hyperion’s recorded sound captures that small-room acoustic persuasively while still letting Jonathan Manson’s cello glow, and you do get the sense (more vital to Op 64 than the quartets that succeeded it) of this music being something understood between friends. There are bolder, funnier, more wildly imaginative accounts of this music out there but you never doubt the LHQ’s sincerity, or the validity of their approach. Once again, it’s a matter of taste. (Richard Bratby / Gramophone)

The London Haydn Quartet HAYDN String Quartets Opp. 54 & 55

Period performance on a string quartet involves the strings and the bow more than the instruments themselves, which may well date from the 18th century even in the case of modern performances. The London Haydn Quartet, using gut strings and Classical-era bows, is one of the leading groups devoted to historical performances of the monuments of the quartet literature, and this double album is part of a series devoted to Haydn's 68 quartets. They cultivate a light, at times almost fantastical sound that forms an intriguing contrast with the often dense and economical structures of these quartets. Sample one of the quintessential Haydn monothematic opening movements—say, that of the String Quartet in E flat major, Op 50, No 3—for the effect. The players have a really nice way with the languid slow movements, and the wit of the minuets is understated. All these pieces can be played in other ways, but it's worth investigating to see whether these rather sensuous readings click with you. A major attraction is Hyperion's Potton Hall sound, musically appropriate and technically flawless. The proclamation in the graphics that the quartets are "performed from the Artaria edition published in Vienna in December 1787" is less interesting than it may sound; many performances derive from this edition or its successors, which in some respects slightly distorted the four Haydn autographs that remain from the set of six. But this is distinctive and attractive Haydn overall. (AllMusic)