Sometimes, as
Dolly Parton has observed, times were bad in the good old days. German nostalgia for the 1970s glory days of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is the only conceivable explanation for the reissue of this disc of Haydn's three early daypart symphonies (No. 6, "Le matin," No. 7, "Le midi," and No. 8, "Le soir"). Certainly Haydn's symphonies, even the early ones, have been performed successfully by modern orchestras;
Dorati's series with the
Philharmonia Hungarica didn't lack for sparkle. But conductor
Ferdinand Leitner and the Bavarian Radio Symphony simply overwhelm these small works in this 1972 Munich recording. These three symphonies, among the most attractive of Haydn's early works, are noteworthy not only for the composer's unfailing pictorial touch, but also for his inventive uses of the swirl of ideas that coalesced into the symphony as a genre -- specifically for the concertante orchestration touches with small groups of instruments set nicely against the larger whole. Although the Bavarian Radio Symphony was a top-flight ensemble, and the individual soloists do well as their turns come, the performance fares disastrously in these passages. The huge string section tramples everything else that's happening, and when Haydn wittily gives free rein to the harpsichord continuo, as he would several times over the course of his career, the harpsichord sounds like some kind of terrible technical glitch, an interpolation from an entirely different recording. Even the original Bayerischen Rundfunk sound, usually a species of technical marvel, was not up to snuff in this case; the strings sound harsh in addition to being loud. The reissue of this disc evokes an old maxim: let sleeping dogs lie.