The six string quartets of Haydn's Op. 20 set, dubbed the "Sun" quartets and represented here by an incongruous Icarus watercolor, were closely studied by Beethoven a generation after their composition in the early 1770s. It's not too much to say that they inaugurated the second half of Haydn's creative life (he was 40 when they appeared in 1772) or even the entire historical trajectory of the string quartet as a genre. There is no shortage of recordings of these, and for a young group like New York's Daedalus Quartet they ...
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The six string quartets of Haydn's Op. 20 set, dubbed the "Sun" quartets and represented here by an incongruous Icarus watercolor, were closely studied by Beethoven a generation after their composition in the early 1770s. It's not too much to say that they inaugurated the second half of Haydn's creative life (he was 40 when they appeared in 1772) or even the entire historical trajectory of the string quartet as a genre. There is no shortage of recordings of these, and for a young group like New York's Daedalus Quartet they might seem a perilous undertaking, especially in performances, like these, that don't have a specific point to make but fall easily into the middle of the road of the performing tradition. As it happens, this quintessentially American group -- two violinists of Korean background, an Indian-American cellist, and an apparently Anglo violist -- clears and even blows past the considerable hurdles it has set for itself with a superb group of Haydn recordings. Consider the positively...
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