Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 64 No. 5 in D major 'The Lark'

“the Endellion's playing is nearly always beyond reproach, and this contrasting array of Haydn's quartet styles and personalities is no exception. They bring out with very simply clarity all of Haydn's humour.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013

“The Endellions play this music with a high degree of polish and refinement. You get the feeling that they have lived with these works for a long time...they penetrate to the core of the music, projecting elegance and lyricism with spontaneity. This is cultivated playing at its very best. Intonation and phrasing are always immaculate.” MusicWeb International, 23rd April 2013

“The recorded sound...has the fullness and realism of a live performance. The Endellion String Quartet respond to these scores with an equally full-toned generosity, though they fine down their vibratos to a remote purity for the wonderful Adagio affetuoso” BBC Music Magazine, June 2013 ****

“This is discerning, often exciting Haydn playing, warmly recommended, with as dramatic and unsettling an account of the Fifths as you will find in the catalogue.” BBC Music Magazine

“Excellent performances by the Jerusalem Quartet, who must give us more Haydn recordings.” Sunday Times

"Excellent performances by the Jerusalem Quartet, who must give us more Haydn recordings." The Sunday Times ***(Excellent)

“The so-called Lark (No 5), with its soaring opening melody and moto perpetuo finale, is perhaps the most immediately fetching of all Haydn's quartets. But No 6 is at least as fine, with its intimate and intensely argued opening movement, its poignant, exquisitely textured Andante and a finale full of instrumental fooling and insouciant contrapuntal virtuosity. Of the other works, No 2 is one of Haydn's most astringent pieces, from its tonally deceptive opening to the mordant, unsettling humour of the finale. Quartets Nos 3 and 4 return to a more familiar vein of sociable wit. Both are endlessly subtle and surprising in their arguments, with cantabile slow movements of peculiar candour and eloquence.
Quartet No 1, the least favoured of the six is certainly the plainest in its thematic ideas. But it's an absorbing, immensely sophisticated piece, exploring an astonishing range of textures; the recapitulation of the leisurely first movement opens up marvellous new harmonic vistas, while the central development of the finale is a canonic tour de force. The Kodály Quartet has rightly won plaudits for its wonderfully civilised playing; mellow and lyrical, far removed from the highly strung brilliance cultivated by many modern quartets. Ensemble and intonation are first class, tempos generally spacious, with broad, natural and beautifully matched phrasing.
It's at its very finest where Haydn is at his most searching; and the Quartets Nos 2, 5 and 6 each receive outstanding, deeply considered performances. In one or two movements the Kodály's penchant for slowish tempos leads to a slight dourness. Against that, it brings a deliciously lazy Ländler lilt, enhanced by the first violin's portamentos, to the Trio of No 6, and a grave, inward intensity to each of Haydn's slow movements. The recording, made in a Budapest church, is resonant and less intimate than is ideal in this music.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This group's versions of the Haydn quartets are among the glories of the Naxos label.” Irish Evening Press

“[the Danish Quartet's] performances are exemplary in matters of intonation, balance and interplay and the recording is suitably opulent and reverberant.” The Strad

“the Danish String Quartet...still have the puppyish energy they had 11 years ago, but now that enthusiasm has the lustre of maturity that was missing in their earliest recordings...you really are compelled to listen with keener ears, which is ultimately what this work really needs.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013

“the players could perhaps have made more of the music's drama. In all other respects, however, this is a fine performance, with an exhilarating account of the scurrying moto perpetuo finale...the Brahms impresses by its warmth and Romantic ardour, and the quality of the recording does the playing full justice.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ****