Customer Reviews

Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 92 ("Oxford") & 94 ("Surprise"); La fedeltą premiata Overture [Hybrid SACD]

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Fischer appears to be bent on becoming the first conductor to record the Haydn canon twice. His first effort (originally on Nimbus, now available in a Brilliant Classics bargain box) was not so hot in the late, great symphonies of Haydn's old age. It was very good indeed in the early and middle period works.

It seems that conductor and orchestra are slipping into the bad habits that compromised the first go at these wonderful works. It makes me wonder if Fischer really has an affinity for these masterpieces. The performances are pretty charmless without the graciousness that the great Haydn conductors (Jochum; Klemperer, perhaps surprisingly; and Szell; to name three) brought to their recorded performances. Phrasing is choppy and the menuets are afflicted with exaggerated luftpausen that make this dance derived music sound pretty arthritic. Fortes are also exaggerated and the tympani (played with hard sticks, I think) overly prominent. The banging works well enough in the "surprise" of No. 94's Andante, not so well elsewhere. Clipped is, I think, an accurate description of both performances. First chair players are OK, but they don't challenge the recorded competition.

The first segment in the new series (Nos. 88 and 101) raised high hopes that have not been realized in this disc or the issue incorporating Nos. 97 and 102. At least the SACD multi-channel layer is well recorded. I think the CD layer is over-reverberant. I hope that Fischer and company will surprise in later installments of this series. They did the first time around and I hope history repeats itself.