Haydn: Symphonies Nos 31, 70, 101: Scottish CO/Robin Ticciati | Album Review

Joseph Haydn Symphonies Nos 31, 70 & 101
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Artist: Robin Ticciati, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Joseph Haydn
Genre: Classical
Label: Linn Records

Three distinctive Haydn symphonies, all in the key of D, all given taut, bracing, urgently propelled performances.

Even the famous tick-tocking slow movement from No 101, the Clock, moves at quite a lick, as if Ticciati is keen to emphasise the rigour of time-keeping mechanisms. In No 31, the Hornsignal, there's woodwind delicacy as well as the brassily-fanfaring quartet of horns, and a parade of well-taken solos for other instruments.

The terse argument of No 70 in D minor serves as a reminder that a reviewer of the premiere of the Clock Symphony wrote, "having found a happy subject, no man knows like Haydn how to produce incessant variety, without once departing from it".

See linnrecords.com

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor