Italian violinist Guiliano Carmignola has a crisp, sharp style that can do wonderful things in High Baroque repertory. In Classical-period music he is again distinctive, but your mileage may vary. This release harks back to the middle days of historically informed playing, when Baroque groups first began to explore the Classical era (and music beyond). There are no graceful, gentle lines here, no warm, muted colors of mythological figures frolicking in summer sunshine. The Orchestre des Champs-Élysées slashes away at the outer-movement entrances, and Carmignola matches them step for step. The third participant is engineer Ulrich Vette, who mikes everything close enough to hear the players' clothes rustling, much closer, in fact, that Haydn's audience at Esterháza would have been. This doesn't make sense, but if you like the overall approach there's a lot to recommend this recording. Carmignola does not conduct the orchestra, but he manages a much closer and more coherent ensemble than occurs on many other recordings where the violinist is waving his bow around. In the slow movements he has nice control over the line, and in general his playing is quite musical in these rather wandering early Haydn works. He makes a good case for them, but there are plenty of other recordings that sound a good deal more "Classical."
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