Adalbert Gyrowetz (or Vojtech Jirovec, as he began life) was one of the most talented of all the Bohemian and Moravian composers who contributed to Viennese musical life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and it is a pity that more of his music is not in the catalogue. There is a case for recording his amiable if admittedly sentimental opera Der Augenarzt (‘The Eye Doctor’; E T A Hoffmann gave it a blistering review), and these string quartets are delightfully and fluently written. Gyrowetz was not in the least ashamed of modelling his own quartets on the example of Haydn, to whom he was a good friend and supporter in London. It need scarcely be said that this is entirely a question of idiom. Gyrowetz’s quartets lack the wit and intellectual energy of Haydn’s, but in their own right they have plenty to offer the undemanding listener.
The three of Op 44 (there are over 50 in all) date from 1804. They have many a Haydnesque turn to them in the melody, and share some of his and Schubert’s harmonic flavour, such as a liking for slipping into a key a third away (though this was becoming a common enough device at the time). Gyrowetz can write an elegant Adagio, and can round off No 3 with what Graham Melville-Mason’s helpful note nicely describes as ‘a busy, rhythmically lolloping equestrian finale’. The Salomon Quartet play the works with just the right weight of feeling, and the recording is fresh and to the point. Well worth a try'