• Joseph Haydn is sometimes regarded as a connoisseur’s composer with too little popular appeal, so it’s a pleasure to welcome two new recordings of his chamber music which I defy anyone not to enjoy. His String Quartets Op 71 of 1793 (Linn) are witty, skilful, and bursting with an energy that Scotland’s Maxwell Quartet capture to the full. Here at the start of each quartet Haydn grabs the audience’s attention – with a bold cadence, a single call to attention, or a brief slow introduction – and then explores the material with a deftness that leaves you smiling. The bare octaves bouncing across the texture in No 2, the cheerful folk dance of the Minuet in No 1, and the hilarious use of sudden quiet staccato notes in No 3 – all are realised with perfect poise.
However, it’s a big undersell to simply label this disc as Haydn’s Op 71, for after each of the three quartets the Maxwells add some evocative Scottish folk tunes, providing gentle, wistful punctuations between Haydn’s essays, beautifully serene. The excellent recording helps the quartet to sing resonantly but precisely.
• The revival of the 18th-century fortepiano has received a boost from the exceptional skill of keyboard player Kristian Bezuidenhout who has been recording Mozart and now turns to Haydn. Yet this is another undersold disc, called Piano Sonatas (Harmonia Mundi), but also distinguished by two superb variation sets, with the intense Variations in F minor as the climax of the disc. Here, extra elaboration seems a little intrusive, so perfect is Haydn’s writing, but Bezuidenhout’s building of the powerfully dissonant climax is masterly. The sonatas flourish with the crisp sound of the piano, a copy of an 1805 Walter, and the argument of the C minor sonata is compelling.
• This music is perfectly suited to intimate listening on CD or radio, and it was glorious in the middle of rush-hour traffic recently to come across the amazing slow movement of Op 64 No 2, played live on the ever-rewarding In Tune (Radio 3/BBC Sounds) by the London Haydn Quartet.
