Even early Haydn is well worth hearing. After all, Haydn was 27 when he began writing symphonies, and certainly was not stylistically immature. There are so many enjoyable moments in these pieces–the irresistibly catchy finale for Symphony No. 1, or the exciting horn writing in No. 5, for example. These performances are brisk and well-played by Sinfonia Finlandia under Patrick Gallois, marred only by a continuo harpsichord tastelessly over-miked to concerto proportions and played by an unmusical hack (Irina Zahharenkova by name) who ornaments her line–in the slow movements particularly– with all kinds of cutesy curlicues and arpeggios, proving once and for all that if the harpsichord is used at all (and in my view it should not be), it ought to sound as discreetly as possible.
Dorati, for example, does just that, and so his recordings, with their larger string sections and extra energy in the quick movements, remain clearly superior to these. Indeed, it’s rather amazing how well they have held up. Fischer on Nimbus/Brilliant Classics also gets the continuo part right, but he’s a touch heavy-handed in comparison to both Dorati and Gallois. This isn’t bad, and it is cheap–but it is also annoyingly, pointlessly flawed.
