Tom Connor wrote:

>My collection is missing Haydn string quartets and I've been listening to
>a local radio station play a number of the Kodaly performances on Naxos.
>Are these as good as they're sounding to me on a car radio? I'm curious
>how list members feel about these Kodaly performances.

I think they're dull.  Maybe it's different on a car radio.  I am in
Holland and have only a bicycle ;)

>Who else for Haydn chamber music?

These days I feel the HIP ensembles (the Mosaiques and the Festetics) are
the best new versions.  Not because I'm partial to HIP but because of the
beautiful and often profound playing.  There are lots of isolated quartets
that I can't list now (an exception:  the Quinten Quartet by the Hungarians
is IMO the best recording ever made of this one from op.76)

>My collection of Haydn symphonies had been well served with Naxos
>performances setting a baseline from which I can leisurely expand into
>other performances.

May I suggest the Bruggen recordings?

>Frankly, with many of these Naxos performances there is no hurry.  These
>Haydn Kodaly performances are clearly enough to convince me I've been
>missing some wonderful music too long,

The Haydn string quartets are great, innovative and impressive landmarks in
the history of chamber music.

Philip