This remarkable undertaking by the Festetics Quartet is the first and only recording of Haydn's complete String Quartets on historical instruments.
Recorded in Budapest between 1993 and 2006, it represents the most ambitious project realized by Michel Bernstein, the legendary founder of Arcana who died a few months after the recording of the very last volume. Out of print for many years, Arcana's reference edition contains all 58 string quartets authenticated by the composer for the major Artaria edition, with 19 volumes presented in chronological order.
This monumental achievement is enriched by a detailed essay by Hungarian musicologist László Somfai, one of the most eminent Haydn scholars. The Festetics have extensively studied Haydn's original quartet manuscripts, and have relied heavily on László Somfai.
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