The Naxos label's ongoing survey of Haydn's symphonies offers a wide variety of interpretations and styles in addition to the chance to discover the works in the Haydn corpus that are not so often performed. One of these is the Symphony No. 25 in C major that opens this disc, one of the few that contains a notated keyboard part that goes beyond mere doubling of the bass; the harpsichordist has several little solos in the slow introduction to the first movement. French conductor
Patrick Gallois, leading the conventional-instrument
Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, treats these as counterparts to the keyboard part in the Symphony No. 98: as humorous details that poke their heads out from around corners. The harpsichord, although dutifully plunking out the harmonies elsewhere, is so far back in the balance mix that it is virtually silent. This is not the only way to treat this symphony, but it fits in with the generally delicious wit of
Gallois' readings elsewhere in the program. Hear the slow movement of the Symphony No. 65 in A major, with its outrageous lurches into triple meter:
Gallois is broad but not crude here. He's well attuned to the details in the larger forms of Haydn's outer movements, such as the unusual feints of interpenetration between development and recapitulation in the first movement of the Symphony No. 65. The Finnish musicians are very clean, lively, and responsive to their conductor, and the sound is adequate. This is among the strongest and most outright enjoyable entries in Naxos' Haydn series.