Robin Ticciati & SCO - Haydn: Symphonies 31, 70 & 101 - The Herald Scotland

There seems to be an inexplicable ebb and flow in the concert popularity of the music of Joseph Haydn that left the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as rare defenders of the canon when they performed in preparation for these recordings at Edinburgh's Usher Hall. These symphonies are three of his finest, two from Esterhazy and the last, "The Clock", from Haydn's London years at the end of the 18th century.

It is likely, however, that they have been chosen as much to highlight the strengths of this band, because just as the earliest made use of a quartet of horns because the composer had access to good players in the court of the Hungarian prince, so the SCO now includes a young star in Alec Frank-Gemmill as principal to lead the foursome on Symphony No 31. The obvious pairing with that might have been No 73, La Chasse, but conductor Robin Ticciati's choice of the 70th is more revealing in the development of the composer - and symphonic writing in general - on the road to the best known of the three, No 101.

It is a great package, recorded with the care and precision we expect from producer Philip Hobbs, and with a thought-provoking essay by American musicologist Richard Taruskin that complements the rigor of Ticciati's approach.