Tátrai Quartet - Haydn: Six String Quartets Op. 64 (1986)

These six quartets represent a high point of the Viennese classical style. In his later quartets, Haydn began traveling on the road to musical Romanticism and reached out to a large musical public. These magnificent pieces, on the other hand, have an intimacy, an elegance, and a generosity of spirit that make them very special, even given the almost unparalleled series of masterpieces that the Haydn quartets represent. Included in this set is one of the most popular of them all: The Lark, whose unforgettable opening with widely spaced chords over the soaring song of the first violin is simply the last word in musical poetry. The Tatrai Quartet plays all of these quartets with perfect command and poise. -- David Hurwitz