Haydn String Quartets complete

[teamsaint]

Just to revive this thread, 9 years on, I was listening today to a couple of the quartets, and I am really tempted by the Festetics set.
May well go for the CDs when Ernie does the decent thing, hopefully in June.

The downloads are awful value on Amazon, but for those who are happy to have MP3 quality, Presto have them at £27.
But better to save for the CDs, I think.

[CallMePaul]

I have not heard all the volumes, but I have greatly enjoyed the New London Haydn Quartet's cycle for Hyperion, which has just been concluded and is keenly priced as 2 discs for the price of one! These are only £10.50 + postage if ordered from the Hyperion website.

[RichardB]

I think the Festetics and LHQ sets complement one another very well. Do you really need two complete sets of Haydn quartets? Yes you do.

[Bryn]

I have not heard all the volumes, but I have greatly enjoyed the New London Haydn Quartet's cycle for Hyperion, which has just been concluded and is keenly priced as 2 discs for the price of one! These are only £10.50 + postage if ordered from the Hyperion website.

If one orders several of the double albums at a go, you get a discount which grows in steps with the growing total ordered.

[Master Jacques]

Just to revive this thread, 9 years on, I was listening today to a couple of the quartets, and I am really tempted by the Festetics set.
May well go for the CDs when Ernie does the decent thing, hopefully in June.

The downloads are awful value on Amazon, but for those who are happy to have MP3 quality, Presto have them at £27.
But better to save for the CDs, I think.

I wouldn't want to put you off the Festetics set, as they are good value and well-recorded; but I've found that I only listen to their recordings in those Haydn sets still unrecorded by the Mosaiques. The Festetics seem to me "rough and ready" by comparison, and don't - for me - repay repeated listening so richly. But I don't want to put you off, especially in (e.g.) Op.50.

[Bryn]

Just to revive this thread, 9 years on, I was listening today to a couple of the quartets, and I am really tempted by the Festetics set.
May well go for the CDs when Ernie does the decent thing, hopefully in June.

The downloads are awful value on Amazon, but for those who are happy to have MP3 quality, Presto have them at £27.
But better to save for the CDs, I think.

QOBUZ has FLACs and other lossless CD quality options for £41.79.

[teamsaint]

I wouldn't want to put you off the Festetics set, as they are good value and well-recorded; but I've found that I only listen to their recordings in those Haydn sets still unrecorded by the Mosaiques. The Festetics seem to me "rough and ready" by comparison, and don't - for me - repay repeated listening so richly. But I don't want to put you off, especially in (e.g.) Op.50.

Ok thanks , helpful comment. I shall deliberate further in any case.

And anyway, it seems that I need two complete sets