Haydn’s early quartets are delightful, not just for their sprightly allegros and folksy minuets, but especially for their soulful adagios. That of Op. 2 No. 4 is a full 12 minutes long, mostly in minor keys. No. 6 begins with a slow theme and variations and replaces the central adagio with a scherzo (so marked). The level of invention remains consistently high throughout, and quite simply these four works never have been better played than they are here. The Auryn Quartet lavishes the same care and artistry on these works as on the later pieces.
First violinist Matthias Lingenfelder, who has the lion’s share of the work in the slow movements, and particularly in No. 2 which is a real display piece, does a wonderful job sustaining Haydn’s cantabile lines with both expression and taste. But then there isn’t a moment anywhere here that is less than captivating, and the sonics, as usual with this series, are as good as it gets. What is shaping up as the best Haydn quartet cycle yet recorded continues to impress, so don’t miss it, and don’t make the mistake of thinking that early Haydn is immature Haydn.
