MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW
BARGAIN OF THE MONTH


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


alternatively Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Joseph HAYDN (1732–1809)
Symphonies - Volume 32
Symphony No. 9 in C major [12:09]
Symphony No. 10 in D major [13:55]
Symphony No. 11 in E flat major [17:28]
Symphony No. 12 in E major [16:40]
Sinfonia Finlandia/Patrick Gallois
rec. Suolahti Concert Hall, Suolahti, Finland, 15-18 February 2005
NAXOS 8.557771 [60:12]



The mammoth Naxos project to record the complete Haydn symphonies must by now be in the final stage. It started as early as March 1988 with Barry Wordsworth conducting symphonies Nos. 82, 96 and 100. After that a number of conductors have been involved, notably Nicholas Ward for the early works and for the rest Helmut Müller-Brühl and Bela Drahos. Now we can add Patrick Gallois with the wholly admirable Sinfonia Finlandia, whose artistic director he has been since 2003.
 
This project is not without precedents. Max Goberman planned to record all the symphonies with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, but he died before he had time to finish the enterprise. Antal Dorati on the other hand brought things to a successful close. His Decca set is a worthy tribute to this versatile conductor, even though there may be individual discs and sets that trump his efforts. Then there is Adam Fischer’s cycle for Nimbus and then Brilliant. The issues in the Naxos series that I have heard have been consistently good, middle-of-the-road readings. The general standard has been high and therefore the issues can be confidently recommended to those wanting to plug holes in their Haydn collection.
 
The present issue is something more than that. It is a well-known fact that the general standard of Finnish orchestras is high. The spate of talented conductors emanating from Suomi is to no little degree a result of the first-class municipal orchestras, some of them semi-professional, that can be found all over the country. They provide rich opportunities for up-coming talents to practise their craft. I used to get, twice a year, an omnibus catalogue covering all the orchestral activities in Finland; this made impressive reading.
 
On this disc we encounter Sinfonia Finlandia, or Jyväskylä Sinfonia as it is known in Finland. It has its home in Jyväskylä in central Finland, about 270 kilometres north of Helsinki. The town has around 85,000 inhabitants and has a university with seven faculties. In Scandinavia the town is best known for the claims that the Nordic Santa Claus (Jultomten) comes from there. The Sinfonia has 38 members, tours widely and collaborates closely with the Jyväskylä Opera. Judging from this issue the orchestra is a superb ensemble, homogenous and virtuosic. There is an energy and rhythmic vitality in this recording that is completely irresistible.
 
The music in itself is also enormously attractive. It may be early Haydn, but early Haydn does not imply bad Haydn or immature Haydn or less-than-original Haydn. Of the Haydn symphonies I have collected through the years – by no means all of them but still a respectable amount – there is not one single specimen that lacks the stamp of inspiration. Of the present four only one (No. 11) is in four movements and none of them exceeds twenty minutes in playing time. That said, there is nothing slight about them.
 
I can’t believe, to take an isolated example, that anyone listening to the first movement of Symphony No. 9 would fail to be infected by the vitality, the spring in the step and the forward thrust. This is music with loads of energy. The Andante, as played here, is certainly a young man’s movement and the Minuet also dances youthfully – but with grace.
 
If there is one piece that can be seen as fairly run-of-the-mill it is No. 10 but it also has its points. No. 11 opens unusually with a slow movement, an Andante cantabile. In his late symphonies Haydn quite often has a slow introduction to the first movement but then follows the movement proper in a quick tempo.
 
In No. 12 Gallois admirably brings out the dynamic contrasts in a dynamic reading. The central movement, marked Adagio, seems to be personally significant for Haydn. It is elegiac and in sharp contrast to anything else on the disc. It is also the longest movement and with the surrounding two movements together playing for little more than the Adagio one get a feeling that this holds up a mirror to the composer’s innermost feelings.
 
With music-making of this order, recorded with clarity and atmosphere, no one should hesitate to acquire this disc. Never mind that none of the symphonies here has a nickname.
 
Göran Forsling

see also review by Brian Wilson

Haydn symphonies on Naxos: review page



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.