Haydn: The Complete String Quartets (Box Set) [20CD]

Hyperion proudly 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. The 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 enthralled by their imagination, their disciplined spontaneity and their cumulative insights" (Gramophone). The set consists of 10 double CDs in strikingly beautiful sleeves, each featuring opulent paintings by Samuel Scott on the front and back. Each sleeve contains a track list, many with facsimiles of the original scores and frontispieces. The 52-page booklet brings together all the 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, scope and imagination, Haydn's quartets define the genre. Even Mozart dedicated six of his own string quartets to Papa Haydn. The series begins with Haydn's Opus 9 quartets, which are widely regarded - even by the composer himself - as the beginning of his development of this new genre.