"The Kodaly Quartet are fully worthy of the composer's inexhaustible invention and make a splendid bargain recommendation. Their playing brings joyful pleasure in Haydn's inspiration and there is not the slightest suspicion of over-rehearsal or of routine: every bar of the music springs to life spontaneously, and these musicians' insights bring an ideal combination of authority and warmth, emotional balance and structural awareness."

Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]

REVIEW:

[In] Haydn’s piano trios...it takes only a hint of overstatement to undermine it completely. Fortunately, this disc, which includes four of Haydn’s relatively late trios (three of them written at the same time as the London symphonies) is almost entirely without blemish. The Kalichstein– Laredo–Robinson Trio combines three formidable soloists who came together in 1977. Joseph Kalichstein’s keyboard technique is impeccable, with a consistent evenness and lightness of touch that is simply breathtaking. Jaime Laredo, in the main sparkling in his performance, has a slight tendency to over-emphasis, although generally there is a marvellous sense of ebullience in the playing. This disc includes the G major Trio (Hob XV/25) with its famous ‘Gypsy’ Rondo, but for collectors of ‘purple patches’, the E minor Allegretto of Hob XV/28 with its enigmatic chromatic theme in octaves will certainly surprise. A disc to treasure.
Performance: 5 (out of 5; Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Annette Morreau, BBC Music Magazine

Such distinguished soloists would not have given their attention to this unfamiliar music unless it had been of high quality, and that is just what it is. The four ''London'' Trios of 1794-5 were really written for two flutes and cello, but they are none the worse for the flute/violin contrast. Trio No. 4 has only one movement (Haydn must have meant to write more), the other three, and their ebullience taxes the technique of all the players most agreeably, the humorous finales being a particular joy. The 'divertissements', also in three short movements, are from a set of six written in 1784, but much of the inventional comes from the opera Il mondo della luna and one of the baryton trios and so is much earlier still. The sleeve-note confuses by describing first what you think are the ''London'' Trios, but which turn out to be the unmentioned divertimentos; also timings of the movements and the complete works are chaotic. This of course does not matter; what does is that the music is so delightful and so beautifully played and recorded.'

-- Gramophone [10/1985]

Joseph Haydn was as prolific as any eighteenth century composer, his fecundity a matter, in good pan, of the nature of his employment and the length of his life. Born in 1732 in the village of Rohrau, the son of a wheelwright, he was recruited to the choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna at the age of eight, later earning a living as best he could as a musician in the capital and making useful acquaintances through his association with Metastasio, the Court Poet, and the composer Nicola Porpora. The first movement opens, as do most of the London symphonies, with a slow introduction, the solo oboe leading to the Allegro, in which the first violin proposes the principal theme, followed by a subsidiary theme in which the woodwind instruments at first answer the first violin. The development seems to end with a sudden pause, but what follows is in another key, leading eventually to the recapitulation proper. The G Major slow movement allows the wind instruments a gradually increasing share, after the announcement of the principal theme by the first violin. There is a Minor middle section, before the return of the main theme, with scoring for two solo violins. The Minuet calls for the full orchestra, with it's flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets and drums, while the companion Trio is dominated by the solo oboe. The finale is opened by the strings with the principal theme, a lively and delicate rondo, that includes an excursion into the Minor, with the same theme, and a contrapuntal development of the material. Symphony No. 82 in C Major, the first of the set, was written in 1786, one of a second group of three in order of composition. All seem to have been played for the first time during the 1787 concert season, when they were enthusiastically received. No. 85 appealed particularly to Queen Marie Antoinette, and was thereafter known as La Reine, while No. 83 became known as La poule, a reference to the clucking of a first movement melody rather than to any lady of the French court. No. 82 won the nickname L'Ours, The Bear, from the bagpipe bear-dance that opens it's last movement. The symphony provides a fine opportunity for the premier coup d'archet, the unanimous attack at the beginning of a work, a feature on which French orchestras prided themselves and that Mozart had found unexceptional. The gentler second subject of the first movement follows relatively startling discords. The slow movement, not a particularly slow one, offers two themes, the first in F Major, the second, a related one, in F Minor. These elements are repeated with variations, with a final repetition of an even more varied version of the first theme, followed by a coda. The French-style Menuet and it's contrasting Trio leads to the famous finale, with it's opening bagpipe drone from the cellos and double basses, and bear-dance violin melody, elements that dominate the rest of a remarkable movement.

"Müller-Brühl, as in his other Haydn recordings, favours broad adagios and Minuets that retain the idea of a stately dance. Yet the freshness and rhythmic resilience never fail to bring the performances to life. An excellent recommendation."

-- Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]

"An entirely winning triptych of named Haydn symphonies, spanning a highly creative period...Alert and vivacious playing from all concerned; admirable pacing and first-class sound ensure a welcome for a disc that would be just as recommendable it it cost far more."

-- Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]

Symphony No. 26 in D minor seems to have been written in 1768 or thereabouts and is scored for the usual Esterháza forces of pairs of oboes and French horns, bassoon, strings and cembalo. Haydn completed his Symphony No. 35 in B flat major on 1st December 1767, scoring the work for pairs of oboes and high B flat horns, bassoon, strings and cembalo. What starts light-heartedly enough assumes a graver air in the central development, where contrapuntal use of earlier thematic material introduces an element of stronger feeling, with the recapitulation marked by the ascent of the first horn to unusual heights. The E flat major slow movement is scored for strings only with music of considerable charm. The wind instruments return for the Minuet, but are excluded from the E flat Trio, with it's triplet rhythm handed from second to first violin. The symphony ends with a cheerful Finale and the tone of the whole work has led Robbins Landon to suggest that it might have been written to celebrate the return from Paris of Prince Esterházy, who had visited France in the autumn of 1767 with the presumed object of learning more about the Palace of Versailles that his own new palace at Esterháza was to imitate and rival. Symphony No.49, La Passione, was written in 1768 and is scored for pairs of oboes, French horns in F, bassoon, strings and originally cembalo. This work, in the key of F minor, belongs clearly to the dramatic mood of Sturm und Drang, although not so called until the publication in 1777 of Klinger's play of that name. Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), a self-explanatory title, describes well enough the current literary mode of extravagant expression of emotions, partly reflected in some of the music of the period. Haydn's symphony follows the old pattern of the church sonata, opening with a slow movement. A degree of tension is generated in the following Allegro di molto, not least by the wide leaps and syncopation of the first violin in the opening of the movement, leading to a calmer shift to the relative major key. The Minuet, in which first and second violins double one another for much of the time, frames an F major Trio that makes use of the high range of the first horn. The final monothematic Presto brings to an end a symphony that enjoyed very considerable popularity in Haydn's life-time, the culmination of a particular development of the symphony and the expression of a depth of feeling that ensured serious consideration for the genre. A symphony of this kind was no mere diversion. Northern Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Formed in 1967, the orchestra has established itself as one of England's finest chamber ensembles. Though often augmented to meet the requirements of the concert program, the orchestra normally contains 24 musicians and performs both in concert and on disc without a conductor. Their repertoire ranges from the baroque era to music of our time, and they have gained a reputation for imaginative program planning.

Haydn's Farewell Symphony was written in 1772, occasioned by the prolonged stay of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy at his Hungarian palace. Some of the musicians had been compelled to leave their wives behind in Eisenstadt when the Prince took up his summer residence. The Symphony, in the final Adagio of which the musicians leave one by one, was intended as a delicate hint that the time had come to return to Eisenstadt, although some contemporary sources suggest that the subject of complaint was the possible reduction of the musical establishment. The Symphony, in the key of F sharp minor, is scored for the usual Esterháza forces of pairs of oboes and horns, bassoon and strings. The first movement opens with the principal theme, descending arpeggios played by the first violins against sustained wind chords and the urgent syncopation of the second violins. Sonata form is treated with considerable freedom, the second subject making it's D major appearance in the development and the following recapitulation inviting an unusual further development of the principal theme. The A major second movement allows muted violins to announce the main theme, the wind having very little to add during the course of the movement. An F sharp major Minuet follows, with a Trio that allows the French horns momentary prominence. This leads to a finale that modulates to introduce the unexpected slow conclusion, in which player after player leaves the platform, until only two muted violins are left. Symphony No.101 belongs to the group of six symphonies written for Haydn's second visit to London in 1794. It was played there at a concert on 3rd March, followed by operatic songs, a performance by Viotti of a violin concerto and by Fiorillo of a Chaconne. Again, as with most of the London symphonies, there is a slow introduction, this time in D minor, an eerie preface to a bright D major movement from which the symphony derives it's nickname, The Clock, it's source the accompanying figure with which the movement opens. The Minuet returns from G major to the key of D major, it's Trio providing a lop-sided clock accompaniment to the initial flute melody. The symphony ends with a finale in which the second subject is a clear variant of the first. There is a D minor section, replaced by the major key to bring the work to a dramatic conclusion.

"The Kodaly Quartet seem very much at home in this music, which they approach with affection, yet with an appealing directness which leads to playing which is perfectly integrated, yet fresh. The recording could hardly be bettered: the balance is most natural."

-- Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]