Haydn: The Complete String Quartets – London Haydn Quartet

Hyperion presents the complete Haydn string quartets on period instruments in a 20-CD box set. These acclaimed recordings by the London Haydn Quartet combine historically informed performance practice with performance editions published during Haydn’s lifetime. This release celebrates the 25th anniversary of the London Haydn Quartet.

“No one who loves this glorious music could have wished for a better result … the more I returned to these recordings, the more I was captivated by their imagination, their disciplined spontaneity and their cumulative insights.” (Gramophone)

Inside are 10 double-CD sets in strikingly handsome gatefold sleeves, each featuring opulent paintings by Samuel Scott on the front and back. Each sleeve contains a tracklist, many with facsimiles of original scores and frontispieces.

The 52-page booklet brings together all individual album booklet essays by Richard Wigmore, from the first release (2007) to the last (2023).

Haydn is revered as the father of the string quartet. In terms of number, scale, and ingenuity, Haydn’s quartets define the genre. Even Mozart dedicated six of his own string quartets to “Papa Haydn”. The series begins with Haydn’s Op. 9 quartets, which are widely regarded—including by the composer himself—as the beginning of his development of this new genre.