It is good that ASV have followed up The Lindsays’ superb disc of the first three quartets of Op 76 so quickly. Here, too, in the remaining Op 76 quartets you have Haydn interpretations that bring forth the full range of expression in these inspired works of his official retirement. They are not just polished and refined but communicate with an intensity that simulates live performance. No 5 in D was one of the works which The Lindsays recorded earlier in a live performance at the Wigmore Hall, but the extra subtlety this time means that rhythms are a degree more liltingly seductive, in which humour is more delightfully pointed, as in the repeated cadence-figure at the start of the finale, with comic pauses beautifully timed.
The quiet opening of No 4, which gave rise to the nickname Sunrise, gently insinuates itself before the full thrust of the Allegro takes over; with its heightened contrasts, it could not be more captivating. Most strikingly, too, the slow movements in each of these three quartets are given a visionary intensity, matching The Lindsays’ treatment of the slow movement of No 1 in the companion disc.
Here is music from the last years of Haydn’s career – written soon after his return to Vienna from his second brilliantly successful visit to London – which in these performances has you thinking forward to middle or late Beethoven and the new world of the 19th century. So the Adagio of No 4 brings a hymn-like dedication, not least in the dark E flat minor episode, and the astonishing modulations in the Fantasia slow movement of No 6 convey the tingle of new discovery, with magical pianissimos for contrast. This was a work which for Donald Tovey marked a tailing-off of inspiration, but one registers the opposite with The Lindsays, when the adagio Fantasia gives way to such witty treatment both in the presto Minuet (in fact a scherzo), with its weird leaps, and the Allegro spirituoso finale.
With refined sound that draws out the subtleties of balance between these players, here is another disc of Haydn from The Lindsays that sets the highest standards.'