Haydn: String Quartets Op 17 No 3, 5 & 6 / Kodály Quartet

"The Kodaly’s Haydn will now be familiar enough to many readers. It deploys a mellow, homogeneous tone and phrases with care and natural musicality. The first violin, very much primus inter pares in these early quartets, shapes the beautiful slow movements of Nos. 3 and 6 with unforced eloquence. The irrepressible, gigue-like opening movement of No. 6, with its adventurous tonal excursions (foreshadowing the similar opening movement in Op. 20 No. 6) , has a nice lift to the rhythms and a lively sense of give-and-take; and each of the minuets is well characterized, notably that of No. 3, with its bizarrely scored Trio (second violin and cello singing the tune two octaves apart, separated by a flowing accompaniment on the first violin and a rustic drone on the viola)." -- Richard Wigmore, Gramophone [Awards Issue 1999]