This version by the Kodaly Quartet is recorded to perfection, well balanced and clear. The musicians allow the music to speak, rather than imposing an idiosyncratic interpretation. Besides, it's a bargain at this price.

These Kodaly Quartet recordings of Haydn's string quartets are immensely pleasing and satisfying. The complete set of these quartets is available, and they are well worth the investment. It's a good thing to have the whole set by the same quartet and these recordings are very attractively priced. The performances are excellent: just pure music with any annoyances. It is a pity this music is not more well-known generally. The development of classical music owes so much to Haydn! As a composer Haydn deserves a level of appreciation equal to that of Mozart and Beethoven, and his music occupies a sphere between those contemporaries: clearly within the classical framework like Mozart, yet his work has an added richness and depth that anticipates Beethoven. This is most easy to observe in this highly evolved, and perhaps most intellectually satisfying of musical genres which was literally invented by Haydn: the string quartet. Beethoven once said that he had not learned anything from Haydn while he was his pupil. Yet it is perfectly clear from Haydn's string quartets and other works, that Beethoven absorbed much from Haydn. Beethoven is much closer to Haydn than Mozart. To realize this is essential! (For example compare Haydn Op. 20 No. 1, Mozart K.V. 563, and Beethoven Op. 3.) To deepen one's understanding and appreciation of Beethoven's string trios and quartets, at least a passing familiarity with Haydn's string quartets would seem an important prerequisite. If you have the complete set of Haydn's string quartets, along with the important Divertimenti of Mozart, his string quartets dedicated to Haydn, and the complete string trios and quartets of Beethoven, you can trace the whole history and development of the string quartet from it's origins in Divertimenti straight through to it's ultimate realization in the timeless profundity of late Beethoven. These recordings are an excellent place to start on that exceedingly pleasant path of discovery!

Those among us who have sold a Naxos CD to a second-hand dealer will know what a degrading experience it is. One can never argue for a higher price. At such times, whatever our names actually are, we should be addressed as `Benjamin Dover' or `Phillip McCrackin'. It is actually less dispiriting to give them away or use them as frisbees.

I bought these two CDs when they first came out in 1995. Shylock has them now. Thruppence came my way and I am much the wiser, albeit somewhat sore in the sewage pipe.

I am a big fan of both the Kodaly Quartet (in Haydn) and the Sun Quartets themselves. Their survey of Opus 20 is the one failure of the set. It is devoid of magic. I do not know whether the players or the sound-engineers were to blame - the poxy sound points to the latter - but the bottom-line remains immutable: it's Naxos at its most pedestrian. The Penguin Guide was being generous when it awarded 'two stars' to these discs.

The Mosaiques Quartet might be period practice but their survey of the Sun Quartets is bedecked with international awards and rightly so

. It is an astounding achievement - and nowadays it is so much cheaper than what yours truly paid back in 1994. Prominent reviewers who loftily dismiss their account as "trippingly galante divertissements" - whatever this means - should check their own ears for excessive wax and/or hair. A back-burn of the latter might be required.

The Kodaly quartet has recorded(or is in the process of doing so) all the Haydn quartets, so this is a chance to get a "uniform" collection of recordings. They are clean, precise, and a distinct pleasure to listen to.