Biography
The London Haydn Quartet was born out of a passion for Haydn's string quartets.
Playing on gut strings with classical bows, they have received invitations to many of the most important concert series in UK, USA, Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. In addition to this, they have started several of their own concert series in which they have performed the complete Haydn cycle.
The quartet have given recitals of Haydn programmes at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Cheltenham International Festival, the Granada International Festival and at Haydn festivals in Esterhazy, Lincoln and Lyon and the English Haydn Festival. Forthcoming performances include a series of four concerts at the Wigmore Hall in which the quartet will perform all Haydn’s opus 20 quartets alongside the six Mozart quintets with Steven Dann.
In the Spring of 2012 the quartet will give a three day seminar for students at the Royal Academy of Music comprising an intensive study of Haydn quartets. During a tour of USA and Canada they will also give masterclasses at Juilliard School of Music in New York and at Yale university.
In addition to their highly acclaimed performances of Haydn they have formed a collaboration with period clarinettist Eric Hoeprich with whom they also recorded the Brahms and Mozart quintets on the Glossa label. Recent concerts in this combination include a re-invitation to Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, several concerts in USA and Canada including a recital at the Library of Congress and appearances in Switzerland, France, Germany and Czech Republic.
The London Haydn Quartet's recordings of Haydn's six quartets opus 9, op 17 and op 20 quartets on the Hyperion label have met with enormous critical acclaim. The opus 33 set will be released in 2012.
Four Haydn quartets performed by the London Haydn Quartet: if the players aren't exceptional they don't deserve to use the name. They were exceptional....This was superlative Haydn, present in all his many colours.
The Strad magazine
Without a doubt one of the all-time great Haydn quartet recordings
Classic FM magazine
The London Haydn Quartet played an all-Mozart program that was virtually detonating with musicianship and fresh ideas. Joined by early-clarinet virtuoso Eric Hoeprich, the quartet's solution was to highlight the personalities of the individual players, resulting in music that was absorbing and genuinely honest.
The Washington Post
The emphasis on line, clarity and movement found its fulfilment in a performance that moved from sublimely beautiful to wrenchingly tragic without slipping out of scale
The Strad magazine
I warmed to the pure glowing sound of gut strings played perfectly in tune, and to the ensemble's delicacy of nuance and sensitivity to harmonic colour, treating the listener as a privileged eavesdropper
Gramophone magazine
These performances by the London Haydn Quartet are marvellous… The lyrical largo from No. 3 in G major is a fine example of the quartets shapely playing and exquisitely balanced blend. Livelier quick music and minuets are also done with astonishing brilliance, gracefulness and intelligence. These are highly articulate, subtle and civilized performances… This is one of the finest Haydn discs I have heard in quite some time.
Goldberg magazine
