Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | String Quartet no. 61 in D minor "Fifths," Op.76 no.2, Hob III:76

The Takács Quartet’s memorable performance was anchored by Grieg’s less-trodden string quartet, prefaced by works of Haydn and Shostakovich.

Would Haydn be the perfect dinner party guest? Witty banter and joyful exchanges characterise the three quartets given at Wigmore Hall as part of its Haydn series.

The Emerson String Quartet played the full cycle of Haydn's Op.76 quartets in Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall.

People want to be in love and to live forever. That is not how things work out. Haydn explores this contradiction in his string quartets. What makes each quartet different is how Haydn resolves musically the way things do work out.

Never hold back – this would serve well as a motto for the St. Lawrence String Quartet. The quartet has been concertizing for over two decades and has seen two member changes, but the intensity and bravery with which they approach music-making has not waned in the slightest.

String quartets don’t come much more ‘period’ than the Quatuor Mosaïques, even if their ideas of historical authenticity are more flexible than the ensemble which brought them together (Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus Wien).