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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Haydn String Quartets Op 76, part 2
“Here, in the last three Op 76 quartets, you've Haydn interpretations that bring forth the full range of expression in these inspired works of his official retirement. They aren't just polished and refined but communicate with an intensity that simulates live performance. No 5 in D was one of the works which The Lindsays recorded earlier live at the Wigmore Hall, but the extra subtlety this time means that rhythms are a degree more liltingly seductive, in which humour is more delightfully pointed, as in the repeated cadence-figure at the start of the finale, with comic pauses beautifully timed.
The quiet opening of No 4, which gave rise to the nickname 'Sunrise', gently insinuates itself before the full thrust of the Allegro takes over; with its heightened contrasts, it could not be more captivating. Most strikingly, too, the slow movements in each of these three quartets are given a visionary intensity, matching The Lindsays' treatment of the slow movement of No 1 in the companion disc.
Here is music from the last years of Haydn's career which in these performances has you thinking forward to middle or late Beethoven and the new world of the 19th century. So the Adagio of No 4 brings a hymn-like dedication, not least in the dark E flat minor episode, and the astonishing modulations in the Fantasia slow movement of No 6 convey the tingle of new discovery, with magical pianissimos for contrast. This was a work which for Donald Tovey marked a tailing-off of inspiration, but one registers the opposite with The Lindsays, when the adagio Fantasia gives way to such witty treatment both in the presto Minuet (in fact a scherzo), with its weird leaps, and the Allegro spirituoso finale.
With refined sound that draws out the subtleties of balance between these players, here's another disc of Haydn from The Lindsays that sets the highest standards.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Opus 76 is nearly the end of Haydn’s epic quartet output. The piece dates from 1797, probably written between The Creation and The Seasons and can possibly be judged as the six greatest quartets that he ever wrote. The Wilanow Quartet was founded in 1967 and takes its name from the summer residence of King Jan the Third Sobieski in the Warsaw suburb of Wilanów, where it gave its first concerts. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Haydn: 'Erdödy' String Quartets Vol. 2
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| |  | Haydn - String Quartets Volume 13The Auryn Series XXIV
2CDs for price of 1 Op.76, Haydn’s last complete set of string quartets, is also his manifesto for posterity. This is the penultimate recording in the Auryn series (Vol. 13 of 14) | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Haydn - String Quartets Volume 11
Volume 11 in the Buchberger Quartet’s cycle of the complete Haydn quartets for Brilliant Classics. Haydn’s six quartets published as his Op.76 in 1799, and composed three years earlier, astonished listeners and commentators alike. How on earth could a man advanced in years keep producing such extraordinary music, and show no sign of his creative faculties diminishing? No less a person than Charles Burney was taken aback by the stunning originality and daring of the Op.76 quartets. Writing to Haydn in 1799 he said ‘I’ve never received more pleasure from instrumental music: they are full of invention, fire, good taste, and new effects, and seem the production, not of a sublime genius who has written so much and so well already, but of one of highly-cultivated talents, who had expended none of his fire before.’ There was no doubt that Haydn had bettered his previous quartets. New in the Op.76 was the appearance of a distinctly Beethovenian scherzo. It is perhaps worth noting that just before Haydn completed these quartets, Beethoven had been his unruly pupil. The young man’s Op.1 trios, Op.18 quartets, and maybe the early drafts of the 1st Symphony, would have been known to Haydn, and, ever curious to develop new ideas, Haydn would have been attracted to the scherzo. The remarkable vision and scope of these quartets has placed them firmly among the greatest in the repertoire. The public has also embraced them, and the nicknames of some of them will be instantly recognisable to listeners – ‘Fifths’, ‘Emperor’ and ‘Sunrise’. The ‘Sunrise’ No.4, has been described by H.C. Robbins Landon as having one ‘of the greatest openings in chamber music’, and the Fantasia slow movement of No.6 as’ one of the boldest and most original movements in the whole eighteenth century’. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Haydn: Flute Sonatas(arranged from string quartets)
Juliette Hurel (flute), Helene Couvert (piano) All works arranged for flute and piano | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Haydn & Webern - String Quartets
Quatuor Elysée: Christophe Giovaninetti, Marc Vieillefon (violins), Dimitri Khlebtsevitch (viola), Igor Kiritchenko (cello) “The players take an appropriately spacious view of the Sunrise Quartet's serene opening bars, and provide a deeply felt account of the wonderful F sharp major slow movement from Op. 76/5. They offer, too, an intensely dramatic performance of the first movement of the D minor Fifths Quartet, and manage to find a striking change of colour for the minor sections of Op. 76/5's opening movement.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2004 *** | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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