This is an especially significant release in Sony's distinguished “Masterworks Heritage“ series, returning the Symphonies 97 and 99 (recorded in 1957) to the catalog and comprising the first stereo release of each. Sonically this transfer offers radical improvement over the old Epic LP of four decades ago. The early stereo image, if not particularly directional, provides greater spread than did the monaural engineering of the Epic disc and, of greater importance, tames the occasionally painful shrillness of that earlier edition. Moreover, this 99 is Szell's only recording of the work and is thus an essential component of his discography. It and 97 receive fleet, tautly controlled readings stamped by textural clarity featuring well-defined winds and brass and benefiting from Szell's sensitivity to motivic structure. I had always thought this 97 to be more intense than the conductor's stereo remake (currently available on a bargain Sony CD), but comparison reveals that this is mainly an illusion created by the dryness of the Epic version, recorded in a Severance Hall lacking the shell that was later added to enhance resonance and was in place when the remake was produced.

The reading of 98 (recorded in 1969) has been on CD for some time and should be more familiar. It is generally stylish, but a bit too bland and comfortable, lacking the flair and animation of the magnificent Toscanini and Colin Davis versions. In the main, however, this is a welcome reissue. Exposition repeats are observed in the first movements of 98 and 99, but not in the finale of the former or in the initial movement of 97.

-- Mortimer H. Frank, FANFARE

The Missa Cellensis was Haydn' first Mass setting for his new employers at EszterhAza. In common with his Stabat Mater, Haydn draws upon the wealth of musical styles and traditions associated with the Viennese Mass. Scored for strings, oboes, bassoon.

In 2013, the Attacca Quartet completed a recording project of the complete works for string quartet by John Adams for Azica Records. The review in the New York Times praised this vivacious, compelling set, describing the quartet's playing as exuberant, funky and... exactingly nuanced. The Boston Globe also praised the release, stating: Few [recent recordings] are as consequential as 'Fellow Traveler'... superb performances. The album was the recipient of the 2013 Nat'l Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award. The hope for our version of Haydn's Seven Last Words (a new arrangement by the Attacca Quartet's cellist Andree Yee) is that it sounds organic enough that even one who has heard the piece performed often will not consciously register anything has been done at all. It is further hoped this version retains the spirit and intimacy of a home version for string quartet, while seamlessly incorporating enough depth to deem it worthy of the concert hall.

"...impeccably, splendidly remastered...I love these recordings and what they represent. And I want everyone I know and everyone I don't know to hear them." - Lloyd Schwartz, University of Massachusetts Boston, New York Arts online journal, for NPR.

Placing the musicians around the listener has a very unusual effect, because the music besets your body and binds it; you sit in the middle of the musical action and you are under attack from all sides. You physically feel the vibration because it physically spreads through your body. But that is not all: your ears bathe in a sea of fairy-tale colors of the most sublime culture. 4009850011835 TCET118DVA 19542065 .00 26.99 .28 TACET RECORDS DVD AUDIO CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/15/2003 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/2/3/3/7/1997332.jpg 4 1 N HAYDN / AURYN QUARTET AURYN SERIES 20: AURYNS HAYDN OP 71 These and other Haydn recordings by the Auryn Quartet convince listeners and indeed make them enthusiastic by their instrumental sovereignty and refinement in their reaction to the given movement characteristics. This is doubtless one of the most important contributions to the Haydn Year" (+ûsterreichische Musikzeitschrift)

HAYDN String Quartets, op. 55 • Auryn Qrt • TACET 170 (70:37)


The second subgroup of “Tost” quartets is my first acquaintance with this cycle, which is now at a well-advanced stage. That the Auryn is a class act is evident from the word go in No. 1 in A: alert, well focused, and tight-knit in ensemble. The first violin is often primus inter pares in these works, and his virtuoso flights are dispatched with shapely panache and a well-judged degree of soloistic freedom. The second-half repeat is observed (and consistently throughout the set). The Adagio is taken at a nicely flowing pace, its airy lyricism beautifully conveyed. The marvelous cadenza juggernaut at bars 61 ff. is impressively realized in its combination of slowly gathering weight with improvisatory freedom. The Minuet goes at a buoyant one to the bar, and the finale has an irresistible surging flow. Comparison with their former mentors, the Amadeus (DG), is intriguing: the old Anglicized Germans attack the first movement with a larger-than-life vibrancy that would be hard for anyone to match, and makes the Auryn sound a little pallid by comparison (although its response to dynamic nuances is keen, its deliberate underplaying of single fortes is occasionally overdone). The Amadeus displays an earthier richness in the Adagio, but its Minuet is heavier and its finale has less light and shade than its protégés.


No. 2 in F Minor (the celebrated “Razor” quartet, whose hoary old anecdote is debunked in the notes) struck me as less successful overall; the opening double variations are authoritatively dispatched, but with a tendency to a kind of gliding suaveness—very beautiful in its way, but I find myself craving more friction, or resistance, to the tone (especially the first violin in the major-mode variations). More rhythmic and tonal bite would again not go amiss in the second-movement Allegro, though its oppressively eerie atmosphere is well caught. But the strict contrapuntal “ars combinatorial” of the Minuet is excessively smoothed out, imparting an inappropriately tentative feeling. The performance finds perfect form, though, in an exciting account of the F-Major Presto finale, whose elusive character, alternately tensely conspiratorial and swashbuckling, is very well captured. By way of comparison, I prefer the greater rhythmic solidity and tonal weight of the Angeles Quartet (Philips) in three movements out of four, but its staid finale is no match for the Auryn.


The sinuous first movement of No. 3 in B? receives a subtle, nuanced performance, occasionally slightly over-ethereal in feeling (see the tense first violin/cello dialogue of the second theme—here the Auryn is the polar opposite of the Aeolian [Decca], which goes over the line to an unattractive grittiness; the Tatrai [Hungaroton] strikes a nice balance in its understated brand of deadpan rusticity). The slow movement is beautifully done, with wonderfully soaring flights from the first violin. Once again, its Presto finale finds the requisite headlong drive—truly exhilarating!


The recording is beautifully balanced and natural. All in all, an impressive release that will be self-recommending to collectors of the series, or to anyone wanting a single disc of these incomparable masterpieces.


FANFARE: Boyd Pomeroy

In 2011 Thomas Fey was nominated for a Grammy for his world premiere recordings of the music of Antonio Salieri. Every new release of Haydn symphonies from Thomas Fey and his ensemble is greeted with enthusiasm; truly this is how Haydn should sound today. To bring this about, Fey's musicians bridge past and present, performing both on modern string instruments and replicas of authentic period woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.

There is nothing immature about the earliest Haydn symphonies, which in style straddle the older Italian overture and Baroque musical world while simultaneously looking forward to exciting new melodic and rhythmic developments of the Classical era.

For the Best of Tacet 2013, the label has chosen from their lengthy catalogue only the greatest and most famous composers performed by some of the finest ensembles in the world.. The tracks included here feature pieces by Vivaldi, Mussorgsky, Saint-Saens, Bartholdy, Chopin, Beethoven, Haydn, and more. All of these tracks have been taken from previous releases. Every one of the 'Best of Tacet' albums has been a stunning success. Ulrich Oesterle writes of Tacet recordings: "Unconventional ways of thinking and enormous skill produce sounds and musical results which are not only astonishing but also totally convincing. Tacet campaigns for quality. And Tacet stands for unusual artistic ideas, truly outstanding musical personalities and audiophile sounds. Tacet is successful and is now available all over the world."

These performances are distinguished by their clean textures, rhythmic precision, and some spectacular high horn-playing. It would be hard to imagine performances of more freshness and conviction.

The most remarkable of [these works] are the two minor-key symphonies that reflect the influence of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") movement in German literature of the time: the impassioned No. 39 in G minor with its four horns, which inspired similar works in the same key by J. C. Bach, Vanhal and Mozart, and the sombre No, 49 in F minor, known as La passione and the last and greatest of Haydn's symphonies in the form of the sonata do chiesa (with the slow movement placed first). Of the other four works, No. 38 in C - in Haydn's festive manner - with trumpets and drums and C alto horns, is particularly striking not least because of its stunning, concertonle oboe solo in the finale, probably written, as H. C. Robbins Landon suggests in the accompanying booklet, to show oft the Esterházy orchestra's new oboist Vittorino Colombazzo. No. 59 in A, known as the Fire for reasons that remain obscure, is full of excitement and dramatic surprises, such as the totally unexpected entry of the oboes and horns two-thirds of the way through the slow movement, and the extraordinary fortissimo horn call that interrupts the return of the main theme a few bars later. No. 35 in B flat is on the whole a sunny, exuberant work, though with an unexpected outburst of passionate counterpoint in the first movement's development section; and No. 58 in F has an almost chamber-musical intimacy and boasts an amusing menuet alla zoppa ("Limping Minuet") that frames a dark-hued Trio that sounds, in Landon's words,, "rather as if a group of slightly sinister Gypsies had suddently entered the feast".

The performances are distinguished by their clean textures, rhythmic precision and nice feeling for tempo; there is a tasteful, and never obtrusive, harpsichord continuo and some spectacular high horn-playing. Perhaps the two minor-key symphonies could do with rather more weight and intensity, but on the whole it would be hard to imagine performances of more freshness and conviction. Even the tendency towards short-breathed phrases in the slow movements and to vibrato-less bulges in the string playing seem less noticeable than before. The recording is every bit as vivid as were the earlier ones [released on Saga Records, now unavailable]—and that is high praise.

-- Gramophone [7/1982]