Word: haydn
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Mozart: Six "Haydn" Quartets (the Roth String Quartet; Mercury, 6 sides LP). Mozart acknowledged that "from Haydn I learned how to write string quartets,"and dedicated these six notable specimens to him. The album brings them all together for the first time. Performance and recording: good...
...Goethe: "Keep your arm linked in mine; they must make room for us, not we for them." Yet in 1812 the man who had liberated music from its classical bounds, and raised composers to something more than servants of a court, wrote to a friend, "Do not rob Handel, Haydn, Mozart of their laurel wreaths: they deserve them; I have not yet earned mine...
...beginning of Haydn's Quartet in G Major (Op. 77, No. 1) sounded rather thin, and not until the middle of the second movement did the group display the full tone that chamber music lovers have grown to expect of it. The final two movements were flawless. All four instrumentalists played precisely but not mechanically, and Haydn's mellow humor was brought out in every measure...
...every ensemble can move from a Haydn quartet to the viscous impressionism of Ravel without losing some authenticity en route. But the Budapest group played Ravel's F Major Quartet with all the suavity of tone and relaxation of phrasing that the piece required. In thematic structure and general outline the work is similar to the better-known Debussy quartet, but the contrasts seem much sharper here. The long, meditative third movement and the very short, intense finale demand virtuosity as well as restraint--two qualities for which the Budapest Quartet is famous. Ravel's skillful use of the quartet...
...Haydn: Six Quartets, Op. 17 (the Schneider Quartet; Haydn Society, 6 sides LP). These lively quartets are among the first three dozen of the 85 Haydn wrote. The performances are straightforward and sometimes brusque, short on nuance and beauty of tone. Recording: good...