Haydn Tatrai Quartet recordings
David
going cheap on Ebay. Ive never heard of this quartet: are they any
good?
Jonty
Simon Roberts
The best of their Haydn is the first set they recorded, op. 76. Most of
what followed (I've not heard their op. 20, which some have commented
favorably on here, but I have heard the rest) are deadly earnest, square
performances that plod grimly along. If these chaps had a sense of humor
or fun or wit or flair they did a remarkably good job of hiding it.
Simon
Alan Cooper
news:slrn3vsaelc...@pobox.upenn.edu...
I'm somewhat more sympathetic to them than Simon. Aside from their highly
regarded op. 76, I would recommend opp. 17, 20, and 77. But the rest of
their cycle is as dull as Simon says, I'm afraid.
AC
Steve Emerson
"Alan Cooper" <amco...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
I also like their Op 50.
SE.
Martha & Russ Oppenheim
Concensus is that the earlier the Tatrai recording, the better. I have
only their Op 17 which seems OK. Bought and immediately dumped their Op
9, recorded very late in their Haydn series - unlistenably bad: harsh,
nasty sound plus stodgy listless performance and unbelievably sour
intonation from 1st violin. I don't know of a decent separately
available Op 9 set (don't even mention HIP to me). Wrote ASV and begged
them to get the Lindsays to do 'em. (Petersens would make me even
happier)
Steve Emerson
Martha & Russ Oppenheim <moppe...@satx.rr.com> wrote:
> Steve Emerson wrote:
> >
> > In article <acecv6$tbm$1...@slb5.atl.mindspring.net>,
> > "Alan Cooper" <amco...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > > "Simon Roberts" <sd...@pobox.upenn.edu> wrote in message
> > > news:slrn3vsaelc...@pobox.upenn.edu...
> > > > The best of their Haydn is the first set they recorded, op. 76. Most
> > > > of
> > > > what followed (I've not heard their op. 20, which some have commented
> > > > favorably on here, but I have heard the rest) are deadly earnest,
> > > > square
> > > > performances that plod grimly along. If these chaps had a sense of
> > > > humor
> > > > or fun or wit or flair they did a remarkably good job of hiding it.
> > >
> > > I'm somewhat more sympathetic to them than Simon. Aside from their
> > > highly
> > > regarded op. 76, I would recommend opp. 17, 20, and 77. But the rest of
> > > their cycle is as dull as Simon says, I'm afraid.
> >
> > I also like their Op 50.
> >
>
> Consensus is that the earlier the Tatrai recording, the better. I have
> only their Op 17 which seems OK. Bought and immediately dumped their Op
> 9, recorded very late in their Haydn series - unlistenably bad: harsh,
> nasty sound plus stodgy listless performance and unbelievably sour
> intonation from 1st violin.[...]
Can anyone supply the complete order in which the Tatrai recorded the
quartets? The "earlier the better" statement does get made a lot. I'm curious
whether it aligns with what I hear.
SE.
Lena
> On Tue, 21 May 2002 20:41:06 +0100, David <dan...@onetel.net.uk> wrote:
> >There are a lot of cd recordings of the Tatrai Quartet playing Haydn
> >going cheap on Ebay. Ive never heard of this quartet: are they any
> >good?
>
> The best of their Haydn is the first set they recorded, op. 76.
I'm going to be difficult and say that I don't even like that one all
that much... I've heard most of the rest, if not all very well.
> Most of
> what followed (I've not heard their op. 20, which some have commented
> favorably on here, but I have heard the rest) are deadly earnest, square
> performances that plod grimly along.
Yes, though they do produce some broad, a bit lush, beautiful sounding,
relaxed phrases. It's just that, generally speaking, the individual
phrases don't seem to add up to anything much. Their Op. 33, which
I've listened to fairly carefully, suffers a lot from this.
Another Tatrai problem, apart from the ones mentioned by others, is to
me this: they don't seem to produce the kind of ensemble, with
voices well balanced, that would make some of Haydn's playing with sounds
stand out (e.g. Op. 50/6, The Frog). This bothers at least me.
Lena
Alan Cooper
> quartets? The "earlier the better" statement does get made a lot. I'm
curious
> whether it aligns with what I hear.
Not complete, bet here's what I have:
op. 76: 1964 (originally issued in mono only)
op. 20: 1968
op. 17: after op. 20, but before Sept 1971, the date of Harris Goldsmith's
rave review in High Fidelity (I couldn't find a copyright date in the album)
Qualiton included a photocopy of that review with the LPs.
op. 77: 1976
op. 64: 1977
op. 33: 1979
opp. 71/74: 1982
I like everything before and including op. 77, but nothing after that.
Don't know the date of op. 50, but I recall thinking that with the splendid
Tokyo set in hand, there was no need to acquire the Tatrai, so I didn't ;-)
AC
Rodger Whitlock
<seme...@dnai.com> wrote:
> Can anyone supply the complete order in which the Tatrai recorded the
> quartets? The "earlier the better" statement does get made a lot. I'm curious
> whether it aligns with what I hear.
The CD sets originally issued by Hungaroton don't give recording
dates, except for op. 76. The following gives the (P) dates
listed in the booklets and inlays, for what they are worth. All
are ADD except where noted DDD. Make of it what you will.
op. 64 1976
op. 33 1979
op. 51 1979
op. 71/74 1982
op. 54/55 1985
op. 76 1985 (recorded 1964)
op. 17 1987
op. 20 1987
op. 50 1987
op. 77 1987
op. 1/2/42/103 1990 (DDD)
op. 9 1991 (DDD)
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
David7Gable
>> > what followed (I've not heard their op. 20, which some have commented
>> > favorably on here, but I have heard the rest) are deadly earnest, square
>> > performances that plod grimly along.
Not my impression of their Op. 33 at all, which I find embarrassingly corny.
So much so that I was put off listening to their much touted Op. 76 until
forced to by a friend who owns it.
-david gable
Lena
Corny? Can you give an example? (If this is not too painful. :) )
I feel they put a lot of expression into individual phrases at the
expense of longer units, which might be along the lines of what you
mean. (This seems to me to result in a kind of an overall squareness,
ploddingness, or not-going-anywhereness. But since their short phrases
can be pretty "lush," I don't find these grim, exactly, either.)
>So much so that I was put off listening to their much touted Op. 76
>until forced to by a friend who owns it.
So what did you think? (Based on remarks by friends, I'm planning to
put off listening to their Op. 64 until I'm slightly comatose.)
Actually, I do think it's true that the Tatrai sets vary in quality,
and some aren't that bad. Also, they might work better for people who
don't require speed, animatedness, humor, goal-orientedness etc.
and who like a kind of broad Mittel-Europaisch style which dwells
extra-lovingly (or possibly cornily :) ) on details.
Lena
Simon Roberts
>Actually, I do think it's true that the Tatrai sets vary in quality,
>and some aren't that bad. Also, they might work better for people who
>don't require speed, animatedness, humor, goal-orientedness etc.
>and who like a kind of broad Mittel-Europaisch style which dwells
>extra-lovingly (or possibly cornily :) ) on details.
Or at any rate are so leisurely they seem to be dwelling on details but
are, in fact, merely sitting on them.
Simon
Franklin, my Delano, I just don't give a huge fuck!
lawyers just seem to be nice and amusing.
David R L Porter
they came in nasty plastic cases that split after a while. I bought them
in Budapest around 1990. They were, like all records in Hungary at that
time, extraordinarily cheap.
I enjoy Op 76 the better of the two, mainly because I like the
performance of the Emperor and enjoyed getting to know the other
quartest in the set.
I remember being a bit disappointed by the Op 64, and have just replayed
the Lark. It seems as though they're grabbing at the music as they play,
and in the first movement the repose that the Hungarian Quartet find in
their Vox LP -- where the first violin soars over an accompaniment that
beats the pants off the Tatrai -- is absent from the their performance.
The Lark is my favourite of all the Haydn quartets that I know, mainly
because my old violin teacher used to make me play the second violin
part while he played the first; I realised then that Haydn had been
generous in his treatment of all four instruments, as well as giving the
big tune to the first fiddle. Not a feeling one gets from the Tatrai
Lark.
In addition, the recording of Op 64 sounds a bit glassy and shrill by
comparison with Op 76.
Interestingly, in the notes to my sets there's a very warm appreciation
of the Op 76 set - 'Perhaps the most perfect interpretation made to this
day' -- but there is no comment at all about the artists and their
performance in the Op 64 notes ...
So what do people recommend as the current front-runner in recorded Larks?
--
Best wishes,
David
david....@zetnet.co.uk
Visit us at www.porterfolio.com
David7Gable
>and in the first movement the repose that the Hungarian Quartet find in
>their Vox LP -- where the first violin soars over an accompaniment that
>beats the pants off the Tatrai -- is absent from the their performance.
Isn't that the Fine Arts Quartet on Vox? The Fine Arts Haydn series on Vox is
terrific.
-david gable
John Thomas
> So what do people recommend as the current front-runner in recorded Larks?
Since it's not available yet I can only note that MDT's June
catalogue shows an Op.64 release from the Mosaiques that should be a
contender in both performance and sound. Has anybody heard it?
-John Thomas
David R L Porter
from david...@aol.com (David7Gable) contains these words:
You got me bang to rights, gov -- I was guessing.
My LP is a 10" in the old Fabbri 'Great Musicians' part series (you got
a 10" LP and a well-illustrated booklet). I know a lot of the Fabbri
recordings were taken from the Vox catalogue, so I assumed that this was
from Vox STGBY 512080, which was praised in the old Penguin Guide to
Bargain Records, vol.1.
I still think this is where it originates from, but there's nothing on
the Fabbri pressing to confirm it. In my earlier post, for 'Vox' read
'Fabbri', but I think they're the same.
The Fine Arts Quartet would be well worth hearing. Vox did more than one
Haydn Quartet series -- a complete cycle by the Dekany Quartet, for
example, and more Hungarian performances on Turnabout. I never saw a
Fine Arts Quartet recording on anything other than Saga LPs in the UK (a
fine Bartok cycle, one of my favourite LvB Op 131s, and more). Saga's 7
Last Words was by the Aeolian Quartet.
Do you have any details of the Fine Arts Haydn series? I'd like to
follow it up.
Matthew B. Tepper
> So what do people recommend as the current front-runner in recorded
> Larks?
Flonzaley. ;--)
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
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Steve Emerson
David R L Porter <david....@zetnet.co.uk> wrote:
> The Fine Arts Quartet would be well worth hearing. Vox did more than one
> Haydn Quartet series -- a complete cycle by the Dekany Quartet, for
> example, and more Hungarian performances on Turnabout.
My impression was that the Dekany did the quartets not done by the Fine Arts
in the Vox Haydn series. The Fine Arts did, e.g., Op 76, Op 74, Op 64, and "Op
3." Dekany did, e.g., Op 20.
(Fine Arts also recorded some Op 76 quartets for another label, Concert Disc
IIRC. Tooter of course has all of this information.)
SE.
Rodger Whitlock
wrote:
The Vox Box set of Haydn quartets was partly by the Fine Arts Qt
and partly by the Dekany Qt. How were the volumes done by the
Dekany?
And a crucial question: has this series (FAQt & DQt, both) ever
made it to CD?
IIRC, the Vox series was one of the few to include the spurious
opus 3 set.
David7Gable
>Haydn Quartet series -- a complete cycle by the Dekany Quartet, for
>example
Actually, there was one cycle on Vox with the Dekany and Fine Arts dividing the
quartets between them.
>Do you have any details of the Fine Arts Haydn series? I'd like to
>follow it up.
>
It seemed as if Vox were going to reissue their complete Haydn cycle on CD, but
they stopped after v. 1.
-david gable
David R L Porter
from david...@aol.com (David7Gable) contains these words:
> >Vox did more than one
Back to LPs --- I just checked the excellent short history of Vox in the
3-CD set '50 years of Vox recordings 1945-1995', where the following is
said:
'... Introduced in Vox Boxes ... the string quartet cycles of Bartok,
Haydn and Schoenberg, played by the Ramor, Dekany and Fine Arts quartets
...'
I don't know that that helps us all that much ...