Haydn: The Complete String Quartets (Box Set) [Box set]

Franz Joseph Haydn (Composer), Kodaly Quartet (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Kodaly Quartet
• Composer: Franz Joseph Haydn
• Audio CD (November 18, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 25
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B001GVA7DW
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,367 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Classical WETA blog, Jens F. Laurson, December 8, 2008

Best Recordings of 2008: 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death and Naxos is already bringing out the big guns for its Haydn celebration: Complete sets of the symphonies, concertos, piano sonatas, and string quartets are to be had in very well constructed, well made boxes. . . it is the string quartet box with the Kodály Quartet's recordings that is the crown jewel of this Haydn-set bonanza. It's the only available such set that is actually complete (opp.3, 51, 103 are all included) and it is consistently well played.

ClassicsToday.com, David Hurwitz, November 2008

This is fine, traditional (in a good sense) quartet-playing, and unlike other complete quartet cycles currently available (Tatrai, Angeles), this set is REALLY complete. You get not only The Seven Last Words, but also the spurious, but very pretty, Op. 3 quartets, as well as the works later discovered to be arrangements of pieces for larger forces. These all fall among the earliest works, and so do not represent the composer's mature quartet style, but they are no less attractive for that and they are, one and all, well-played and well-recorded.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'All My Children', November 18, 2008

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Haydn: The Complete String Quartets (Box Set) (Audio CD)

Not ordinarily an envious sort, I am nonetheless envious of a friend, a violist, who has over the years played all the Haydn quartets with string-playing friends. What fun that must have been! Surely this body of works by Papa Haydn is among the most important ever written for the combination of two violins, viola and cello. And so many! Sixty-eight of them plus the quartet version of 'The Seven Last Words of Christ', plus several 'cassations' and several (like the Op. 3 quartets) now often attributed to others, a total of eighty-three! Almost inexhaustible riches.

Over the years I have collected several of the singly-issued CDs of various of the quartets recorded by the redoubtable Kodály Quartet but now have this collection of all of the quartets recorded by them. The price of the collection is very much in the budget range -- less than $4 per CD -- and worth every penny. They range from the Op. 1 quartets (including the strangely designated Op. 1, No. 0) which are much more like divertimenti with their two minuets to the Op. 9 quartets that display the quintessential element of the string quartet, conversation among the individuals. To the Op. 17 set with their virtuosic first violin parts and the Op. 20 quartets which not only echo the Sturm und Drang mood of Haydn's contemporaneous symphonies but also feature much more virtuosic cello parts. To the Op. 33 set which mostly leave behind the fugal, baroquish language of the earlier quartets and show more rhythmic and harmonic daring as well as the wit that has come to be called 'Haydnesque' when it occurs in other composers' works; these quartets also replace minuets with scherzos; it was the Op. 33 quartets that Mozart studied when he was writing his own so-called 'Haydn Quartets'. To the Op. 50 'Prussian' Quartets, written for the cello-playing King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, the two sets of 'Tost' Quartets (Opp. 54, 55, 64), the 'Apponyi' Quartets (Opp. 71 & 74), these the first set specifically meant for public performance (previously the quartets were for private music-making). And on through to the final quartets, Opp. 76 ('Erdödy') and 77 ('Lobkowitz'). This 25-CD set concludes with 'The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross', Op. 51, with its nine slow movements, and the two-movement Op. 103 quartet, written in 1803 when Haydn was failing and which he was unable to finish.

The Kodály Quartet recorded these marvelous performances in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Their membership, subsequently changed, consisted of Attila Falvay, 1st violin; Tamás Szabo, 2nd violin; Gábor Fias, viola; and János Devich, cello. Huzzah to them! There are many recording of these works by other quartets but for a combination of musicality, heartfelt playing, excellent recorded sound, and price, this set cannot be beat.

You can read other reviews of these recordings at the Amazon product pages for the single issues, e.g. Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 33 "Russian", No. 1, No. 2 "The Joke", No. 5 "How do you do?", Haydn: The Emperor, Fifths and Sunrise Quartets, Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76, Nos. 1-3, Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 76, Nos. 4, 5 and 6.

Total time: 25 hours, 42 minutes.

Heartily, even urgently, recommended.

Scott Morrison

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Do not hesitate!, January 1, 2009

By 

Clark Anthony "Tony Clark" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Haydn: The Complete String Quartets (Box Set) (Audio CD)

If you are reading this, then you must like Haydn's quartets. Perhaps you are hesitating to buy the whole lot, or uncertain which set to buy. I cannot offer an adequate work by work comparative assessment, but I do exhort you not to deny yourself the pleasures of this set. Yes, 25 CDs is quite a lot but within a few months you will have listened to all of them more than once. And please do not assume that there is a lot of milk here, but only a little cream. It's not like that at all. All the works are interesting and the performances are very good to excellent with the sound attractively rich and forward.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full, rich quartet recording., April 2, 2009

By 

Robin Ray "redrobin62" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Haydn: The Complete String Quartets (Box Set) (Audio CD)

It's a customary practice these days, or at least within the last 10 years or so, to "thicken" up a string quartet recording by quadrupling the violins, doubling the violas, etc. This results in a fat, smooth, sonorous recording such as those performed by I Musici, I Solisti Italiani, etc. The Complete Haydn String Quartets, as performed by the Kodaly Quartet and recorded at the Unitarian Church in Budapest in 1991, doesn't need such treatment. The recording is so clear and full you can practically smell the wood of the pews or see rays of sound bouncing off the stained glass windows. Enhanced by natural reverb, the strings need no "sweetening" and the overall quartets require no compression or volume balancing. What you hear is an absolute dream, a chance to dive head first into a repertoire that is often overshadowed by the quartets or other luminaries such as Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, or Dvorak. This set, albeit as expensive as it is, is highly recommended. These recordings are perfect for Sunday morning, winding down from work after a hectic day, or even as accompaniment while you peruse the NY Times. Highly recommended.