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).
As before in this series, finales can be too cautious in tempo and attack: in particular, the impish Prestos that close Nos. 5 and 6 are rather muted, their buffo high spirits and zestful contrapuntal interplay underprojected. Nor does the Kodaly make the most of the theatrical G minor slow movement of No. 5, an instrumental scena interspersing arioso with recitative, that prefigures the Adagio in Op. 20 No. 2. More variety of colour and dynamics, and a more generous flexing of the pulse, would have helped here (as sometimes elsewhere). Still, the Kodaly’s warm, slightly old-fashioned playing is never less than agreeable on the ear. And, as I’ve suggested before, until The Lindsays or the Mosaiques alight on these inventive works - far more than mere warm-up acts for the great Op. 20 set composed the following year - these performances should serve Haydn-lovers pretty well, especially at under a fiver. The recording, as usual, is slightly on the ‘tubby’ side.'