From the moment the four bows strike the strings, an ethereal luminescence descends. The beauty of the G Major quartet Op 77 is sublimely performed by The London Haydn Quartet, a group that play on period instruments and was born out of a passion for Haydn, which on this double CD is exemplified with meticulous playing and interpretative exactitude that shines through each movement.

Richard Wigmore brilliantly catches the sentiment of these fine examples of Haydn’s compositions in his interesting notes: ‘With all the nonchalant mastery of technique acquired over five decades of quartet-writing, the Op 77 quartets encompass a vast range of experience, from rustic earthiness, through sociable wit and anarchic comedy, to Wordsworthian voyages across ‘strange seas of thought, alone’.

The lyricism and clarity of each line is perfectly shaped, the balanced intricacies and virtuosic passages as each player musically converses, transmits such exquisiteness. The D minor is delivered again with poise and tenderness especially the heavenly adagio with which The London Haydn Quartet creates an intensity that is never indulgent.

Reviewing this disc during Holy Week, The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross proved to be moving and inspirational with the Quartet continuing to bring a textural richness and depth to its playing.

Haydn finished the work in time for the performance, at both the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva in Cádiz and the Schlosskirche in Vienna, on Good Friday 1787. As Richard Wigmore points out, to ensure the music’s wider circulation Haydn quickly made an arrangement for string quartet, which has become far more popular than the orchestral original.

The tone, detail, pace and phrasing conjure the sorrow and hopelessness and even though Wigmore says the string-quartet arrangement loses colour (including felicitous woodwind details), majesty, and, in the final ‘Earthquake’, sheer physical power, it is hard to disagree that it gains in speaking intimacy. The London Haydn Quartet achieves this through wonderful pauses and sensitivity, the poignancy always present in such focused, disciplined and technical brilliance.

Recorded in Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, the sound engineers have done a great job in capturing Haydn’s music performed by a quartet which inspires through playing that is lively and witty, delicate and expressively nuanced; informed with a sense of authenticity through obvious passion and research that the Quartet has for, and understanding of, ‘Papa’ Haydn