Thread: Haydn String Quartet Cycle

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Post by tream September 28, 2012 (1 of 14)
A few months ago there was a post from one of the labels asking about interest in a subscription based release of the complete Haydn String Quartets. I was looking for the thread and couldn't find it, and I am curious to see if there has been any progress on this worthy project.

Tom

Post by undertone September 28, 2012 (2 of 14)
tream said:

A few months ago there was a post from one of the labels asking about interest in a subscription based release of the complete Haydn String Quartets. I was looking for the thread and couldn't find it, and I am curious to see if there has been any progress on this worthy project.

Tom

The label was Tacet, the Auryn Quartet. See Post 87 for the announcement, and further comments at the end of the thread.

/showthread/79321/84674

Post by tream September 28, 2012 (3 of 14)
Thanks!

Post by Beagle September 28, 2012 (4 of 14)
It would be a shame if all we live to get from Tacet were the usual 'Lark' and other 'best sellers'. In March 2011 on the Missing Chamber Repertoire thread*, I counted up the Haydn quartets on SACD at that date and found 45 quartets were not yet recorded:

Op. 1 nos. 2,3,4,5,6
Op. 2 nos. 1,2,3,4,5,6
Op. 3 nos. 1,2,3,4,5,6
Op. 9 nos. 1,2,3,5,6
Op. 17 nos. 1,2,3,4,5,6
Op. 20 nos. 1,6
Op. 50 nos. 1,2,4
Op. 55 nos. 1,2,3
Op. 64 nos. 1,2,3,4
Op. 71 nos. 1,2,3
Op. 76 no. 6
Op. 103

If Tact wants a guarantee on investment, there is a ready market for any of these works, preferably opus by opus.
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* /showthread/68337/68459

Post by nucaleena September 29, 2012 (5 of 14)
Some of these works are avaialable on m/ch dvd audio, on Tacet. Coverage so far is pretty reasonable and is certainly not limited to the "hits". I presume that all of the dvd-a recordings would be made available on sacd. By the way, both sound and performances are excellent.

Post by Beagle October 2, 2012 (6 of 14)
nucaleena said:

Some of these works are avaialable on m/ch dvd audio, on Tacet.

Ah yes, and I see that the first item on Das Mikrofon is the Auryn playing the Andantino grazioso of Op. 74/2 (and track 11 is them playing the scherzo from Schubert D887).

Post by hanser October 4, 2012 (7 of 14)
nucaleena said:

Some of these works are avaialable on m/ch dvd audio, on Tacet. Coverage so far is pretty reasonable and is certainly not limited to the "hits". I presume that all of the dvd-a recordings would be made available on sacd. By the way, both sound and performances are excellent.

Tacet does a complete Haydn Quartets release with the Auryn, on CD and on DVD Audio, as far as I know (I have the op 33 and it is excellent).
Like they did with the complete Beethoven quartets. SACD seems unsure.

Post by Arthur October 4, 2012 (8 of 14)
I had the impression Praga was slowly working its way through the whole cycle, albeit with different ensembles.

Post by Hitters October 6, 2012 (9 of 14)
The Haydn Auryn on TACET is simply a benchmark and a remarkable achievement, both musically and sonically. If I didn't own it already on RBCD I would be waiting in line to buy the complete cycle in SACD.

Post by Beagle October 8, 2012 (10 of 14)
I recently entered the performance times for the Auryn Haydn cycle into my database, and immediately noticed that their timings were generally the slowest (typically in contrast to the Kodály Quartet on Naxos, but also some Lindsay, Endellion, Italiano, Mosaïque and Zemlinského performances).

I crunched the numbers just now and out of 31 comparisons, the Auryn performance was the longest in 23*. On average, the Auryn timing was 110% of the other performance time, with a maximum of 136%. Three of the eight comparisons where the Auryn's timing was shorter were Auryn vs Auryn: their 1990 performance of Op. 71 nos. 1-3 versus thier 2008 performance. They've slowed down with the passage of time. Tempo isn't everything, but it is often a good indicator of musical philosophy. The Auryn attitude is built for comfort, not for speed.
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*26 of 31, counting Auryn vs Auryn

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