The London Haydn Quartet - Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 64 (2018)

From among the many British string quartets that cultivate the repertory of the Classical period, the London Haydn Quartet stands out for its use of period instruments, strung with gut and played with bows from the Classical era.

The members -- violinists Catherine Manson and Michael Gurevich, violist John Crockatt, and cellist Jonathan Manson -- came together in 2000 out of mutual enthusiasm for Haydn's music. The quartet soon received invitations to perform on chamber music concert series in the U.K., the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and Japan, appearing at both Yamaha and Asahi Halls in Tokyo. It has appeared at Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, and other top venues, including Haydn's Esterháza palace. The quartet focuses on Haydn, but does not program his works exclusively, often pairing them in concert with those of Beethoven, and in the process drawing new connections between the works of those two composers. It has also collaborated, on recordings and in concert, with period-instrument clarinetist Eric Hoeprich, with whom it has recorded the Brahms and Mozart clarinet quintets.

At the center of its recorded output, however, has been its cycle of Haydn quartets, recorded for Hyperion. The cycle was launched in 2007 with the Op. 9 quartets, and by late 2017 reached the quartets of Op. 54 and Op. 55. Rapt critical acclaim, like that of The New York Times in its review of a 2014 New York Morgan Library performance, was typical: "The musicians highlighted the mysterious and brooding character of the first movement, which opens with a questioning cello motif. The earthy, warm sounds of the gut strings blended beautifully throughout. The quartet's deeply committed music making seemed indicative of a longstanding and nourishing partnership, as the physically demonstrative players were acutely alert to their colleagues' every gesture." The years 2016 and 2017 saw London Haydn Quartet tours on four continents. ~ James Manheim