Haydn Masterworks

Throughout this Warner Classics six disc set one remains impressed with Harnoncourt’s tightly controlled direction of his magnificent forces, employing tempi that always feel appropriate. The sound quality is of a high standard as is the interesting and informative annotation. A valuable set of Haydn sacred music that is perfect for dipping in and out.

"What is striking in the Symphonies 97 en 98 are the beautiful slow movements: Haydn again shows us that he is the master of our feelings. The menuets are catchingly dansant, the trios are refreshing. The first movements of these symphonies start with - as often is the case with Haydn- with a short, slow introduction and directly after that they burst into a fast tempo full of joyfulness and inventiveness. He makes simple themes develop into masterworks in an unsurpassed way. The closing movements, fast in character and starting off with only the strings, are astonishing because of their vitality and structure. Haydn is at his best in the 12 London Symphonies."

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Cello Masterworks is an eight-CD box set of previously released material recorded in the 1980s and 1990s, and presumably so familiar to his fans that the package doesn't even come with a booklet. It really is a no-frills affair, right down to the thin cardboard sleeves that repeat the same photograph on the box, instead of offering original cover art. But the greatest disappointment is that only three of J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites were included, so listeners seeking them should forego this budget package and find the complete suites, which Ma recorded twice.

Founded by the late, great conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt in 1953, Concentus Musicus Wien was one of the very first period-instrument orchestras, its recordings of baroque and classical masterworks setting benchmarks for their sheer energy and spirit. Today, the orchestra continues that powerful legacy under the baton of Austrian conductor Stefan Gottfried, whose ingenious programme here invites us to make musical links between Schubert and the earlier Haydn. On the surface, Schubert’s youthful Symphony No. 5, completed in 1816, owes a clear debt to Beethoven. But listen to Haydn’s sophisticated Symphony No. 99, the first of his second series of “London symphonies”, and you can hear that same charm and boisterous exuberance shining through in Schubert’s later work. The performances, captured live at Vienna’s famous Musikverein, are a pure joy.