Robin Ticciati & SCO - Haydn: Symphonies 31, 70 & 101 - MusicWeb International

We may no longer think of Haydn as the Father of the Symphony but he was the first great exponent of the form and there's nary a dud in all his output of 104+ symphonies.  Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra bring us three selected works in D from this vast output, all of them well worth hearing and, since they mark several stages in his development, forming a first-class introduction to his symphonic output.

No.31, nicknamed Hornsignal for good reasons, belongs to his middle Sturm und Drang period, though it's not the fieriest example of the style.  No.70 was composed for the rebuilding of the burned-down Esterháza Opera House and No.101, the Clock, belongs to the second set of the symphonies composed for Salomon, usually known as the London symphonies.  The performances are very good and the recording, made as recently as February 2015, is of Linn's usual high standard, as is the booklet, included with the download: I didn't know, for example, that Eisenstadt, the home of Haydn's employers, also had a Hungarian name, Kismarton. 

The SCO play as well as they did for Sir Charles Mackerras, whose performances of the late Mozart symphonies have become modern classics of the recorded repertoire, and for Elizabeth Watts and Christian Baldini on their recent album of Mozart arias*, while Robin Ticciati has a sure sense of the music. 

Only those insisting on period instruments need look elsewhere and even they should not be too disappointed.