Giovanni Antonini & Kammerorchester Basel - Haydn 2032, Vol. 11: Au goût parisien - Gramophone

Eleven volumes and 35 symphonies down, Giovanni Antonini now reaches a third of the way through his Haydn cycle with a sequence of works with French connections. The two ‘Paris’ Symphonies (Nos 82 and 87) are shoo-ins, while No 24 is supposedly the first of Haydn’s symphonies to have received a documented performance in the French capital and No 2 became the first to be published – by a Venetian music dealer active there.

The two mature works are the main attraction here. Antonini keeps a tight grip on pulse, avoiding the queasy distensions of tempo in which Nikolaus Harnoncourt indulged in his set of all six ‘Paris’ Symphonies. 

The two early symphonies naturally sound more formal and chaste than the later ones, without the virility of the musical gestures or the imagination of the developmental procedures that were to become hallmarks of Haydn’s style. But never mind: Antonini and his Basel ensemble perform them with poise, accuracy and stylistic insight.