Haydn String Quartets

The Smithson String Quartet was, during its fourteen-year residency as a part of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, the pre-eminent American based quartet performing the great classical and early romantic repertoire on original instruments. The Quartet took its name from James Smithson, whose 1829 bequest 'to the United States of America, to found at Washington , an establishment for th increase and diffusion of knowledge among men' made possible the creation of the Smithsonian Institution - the United States National Museum - in 1846. The present disk contains performances never before released.