At last! Here is, very belatedly, the first complete Haydn symphony cycle on period instruments. In the wake of their hugely successful 1980s Mozart symphony cycle, the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood naturally turned to Haydn in the 1990s, and fine boxes were issued by Decca covering 79 symphonies. But other ensembles were also active; none of the recordings sold well enough, and when the CD boom faltered all these series were cancelled. There were period recordings of the great final symphonies, including the late Frans Brüggen’s series with his Orchestra of the 18th Century, but there was a frustrating gap in the middle: numbers 78-81 had never been recorded on old instruments.
Ottavio Dantone’s very lively Accademia Bizantina has now filled that gap; Dantone’s wiry, stringy sound, with plenty of rhythmic bounce, is different both from Hogwood’s poised coolness and Brüggen’s warmer expressiveness. In assembling the complete sequence, Decca has replaced Hogwood’s middle-period symphonies with long unavailable versions that Brüggen recorded with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
In these pungent works, I prefer Trevor Pinnock and his English Concert on Archiv, but generally the choices are good, and both Hogwood and Brüggen are included in 96, 100 and 104 – a narrow win for Hogwood’s dramatic early version of 104. Really, there is enough wonderfully subtle music in this set to nourish a lifetime’s listening.
