Haydn String Quartets Op.54 Nos 1-3 - Classical Music CD for Relaxation, Study & Dinner Ambience | Perfect for Music Lovers & Collectors

Haydn’s chamber compositions—particularly his piano trios and string quartets—must surely stand as some of the greatest accumulated glories of chamber music.Based on the recommendations of Amazon’s intercontinental brothers-in-arms O’Hanlon and Moore, I started looking into the Kodaly Quartet recordings of the Haydn quartets. While the entire 24-CD Kodaly set of the Haydn quartets is available at a very tempting price, I didn’t need them all. I also have enough box sets to make one side of my house lean conspicuously. The neighbors were starting to complain.So I opted for selective Kodaly renditions spanning Op. 50 – 74, including this particular CD. I am by no means an expert on the string quartet genre, and certainly not an expert on Haydn, but I know wonderful music when I hear it, and I’m hearing it now. I must say this has been a delight from start to finish. An ideal (and inexpensive) way to “learn” more of Haydn’s justly-famous quartets. Great, inventive and spirited works, full of passion and good humor.Other reviewers have been correct in their assessment of these performances by the Kodaly quartet, recorded in the ‘80s and ‘90s in Hungary: well done, crisply and spontaneously played with solid intonation and generally decent sound. I can easily understand why string quartet aficionados feel the Kodaly rivals almost all other available renditions. The Penguin Guide gave the entire set one of their rosettes.I can’t personally vouch for the entire Kodaly set, not having heard all of it. However, others have, and based on the strong showings of the following 5 CDs in my sample, I can readily recommend them, and suggest others might enjoy “the full Monty”:Op. 50, 4 - 6 (“Prussian”)Op. 54, 1 - 3Op. 64, 4 - 6Op. 71, 1 - 3Op. 74, 1 - 3