The Beethoven cycle marks a wonderful start into 2010 for the exceptional Auryn Quartet which not only played the complete Haydn quartets in a cycle of 18 concerts in Cologne in 2009, but also embarked on the extraordinary project of recording the complete Haydn quartets for the German Tacet label during the Haydn year. The first CD of their Haydn series received the prestigious ECHO award in October 2009. The Auryn Quartet has already presented its Beethoven cycle in Cologne, Washington, Padua, Lyon and Hamburg, and also recorded the complete quartets for Tacet to great critical acclaim.

The programme details for the first part of the Beethoven Cycle at Wigmore Hall are as follows:

3 January 2010, 7:30pm
String Quartet in D Op. 18 No. 3
String Quartet in Eb Op. 127
String Quartet in F Op. 18 No. 1

4 January 2010, 7:30pm
String Quartet in F minor Op. 95 ‘Serioso'
String Quartet in A Op. 18 No. 5
String Quartet in C Op. 59 No. 3 ‘Razumovsky'
 
5 January 2010, 7:30pm
String Quartet in Eb Op. 74 ‘Harp'
String Quartet in G Op. 18 No. 2
String Quartet in C minor Op. 131

Following the acclaimed recordings of the complete string quartets by Schubert, Brahms, Schumann and Bartók, the Auryn Quartet will finish recording all 68 Haydn string quartets by 2010 in a 14-disc edition for the Tacet label.

The release of Vol. 1 and 6 was met with an enthusiastic response by music critics.: "...a pick-me-up of the ingenious sort" (Stuttgarter Zeitung) that "knocks even such respectable competitors as the Kodály-Quartet down a peg " (KulturSpiegel).

Haydn lovers can now look forward to a new recording almost every month. Vol. 12 (op. 74) will be released now in January.

In April, July and October, the Auryn Quartet will perform the entire cycle in live concerts. Through the course of 18 evenings, they will present all 68 quartets at the WDR radio in Cologne.

further information about the CDs: www.tacet.de
further information about the concerts: www.wdr3.de