These three works are little known and perhaps of more curiosity than musical interest, but I enjoyed them. The earlist got left out of Haydn's Op. 1 by mistake and the middle movement of the five seems to me much the best, a lovely lyrical violin solo, simply accompanied and very nicely played here by Diana Cummings. Those at the first performance should have said (and perhaps did) ''Here is a composer we must keep our eye on''. Half a century later Haydn wrote the middle two movements of a quartet presumably intended for the Op. 77 set; enfeebled by old age he never completed it but the minuet is splendid. Half-way between these two works stands the charmingly concise D minor, Op. 42, the most consistently interesting of the three works here recorded. The tiny contrapuntal finale allows all four players to demonstrate their technique, and there is a nice touch of Haydn with at the end.
Throughout, the playing is alive and secure. Sound and balance are both excellent, and this is just the recording for those with a taste for the byways of Haydn's oeuvre. But I must add that you get only 43 minutes of music for your money. There is no LP equivalent.'