Haydn: String Quartets opp.51, 54, 55, 64, 71, 74 (Amadeus Quartet)

Joseph Haydn: String Quartets opp.51, 54, 55, 64, 71, 74 Amadeus Quartet: Norbert Brainin and Sigmund Nissel, violins; Peter Schidlof, viola; Martin Lovett, cello. (Deutsche Grammophon, 289 477 5145)

 In many ways the Amadeus Quartet was the leading string quartet of the LP era. They made their first recordings for Deutsche Grammophon in 1951 and continued to record for the label almost up to their disbandment in 1987. Among the welter of reissues cashing in on this year's Haydn anniversary, this collection of most of their Haydn recordings has to be one of the most treasurable.

 Haydn composed around 80 works for string quartet, but this box covers them from Op 51, the quartet version of the Seven Last Words from the Cross, up to the unfinished work of Op 103. The recordings date from the 1960s and 70s, beginning with a version of the C major Quartet Op 76 no 3 from 1963, and ending with the Opp 71 and 76 sets made 15 years later. This is poised and civilised music-making, much of which is familiar and all of it intensely thoughtful and revealing. Occasionally, there is the feeling that the Amadeus's approach gets a little too reverential, as if all four players were treading on eggshells, more noticeable nowadays perhaps when many quartets would adopt a far more robust approach. But more than compensating for those rare moments of preciousness are passages when the playing of slow movements especially seems to anticipate the profundity of Beethoven. If you buy only one Haydn release in this year, it should be this set.

Andrew Clements / The Guardian (Friday 28 August 2009)

 . . . the temptation to stand up and applaud every performance as though at a live concert is quite uncanny . . . but this is undeniably great music-making that every collector should experience at least once in a lifetime.

Record Review / International Record Review (London) / 01. March 2005