These marvelous performances, now reissued at mid-price, offer simply the last word in how to play Haydn on modern instruments while giving due consideration to period-performance practice. Charles Mackerras opts for lively tempos in the outer movements of both symphonies, gives flowing accounts of the Andantes, and in the minuets steers a clear course between stateliness and the hyperactivity characteristic of so many “authentic instrument” versions. Every important detail of Haydn’s colorful orchestration–the charmingly scored “tic-tocks” in the slow movement of the “Clock”, the whirlwind string interludes in the “London” Symphony’s finale, the vivid writing for trumpets and drums–registers with perfectly natural clarity and balance. Effortless, enjoyable, essential: if you don’t own these performances, then you don’t know these works as well as you should. [1/17/2003]
