The Haydn à Paris title of this disc denotes the composer's musical rather than physical presence in Paris. By the 1780s he was hugely popular there, and the detailed booklet notes by Jérôme Lejeune refer to Haydn's frequent presence on the programs of the Concerts spirituels series and those of its rival, the Concerts de la loge olympique, for which the six so-called "Paris" symphonies were composed. The subtitle of the Symphony No. 85, "La reine," came about because the work was said to have been a favorite of Marie Antoinette herself. The performances by the Belgian historical-instrument group
Les Agrémens under
Guy van Waas are full-fledged early music Haydn, with winds that squawk especially strikingly in the Minuet movement of that work. The Symphony in D major, VB 143, of German-Swedish composer Joseph Martin Kraus is included here because he was one of the many composers whose works were passed off by Parisian publishers as Haydn's own. His symphony has no minuet, but features an opening Allegro of impressive scope, with a passage that proceeds from a rustic tune into dense counterpoint and finally into a full-orchestra explosion. Period instruments have much to contribute to Haydn's music, but here they dampen down the contrasts intended rather than highlighting them. The final work is the Symphony No. 45 in F sharp major, the famed "Farewell" symphony. This is one of the few works that can be definitively identified from the surviving Concerts spirituels programs, one which refers to a "Symphony ou l'on s'en va" (symphony in which one takes off). The booklet material here is again of considerable interest, presenting a French source that gives a program different from the traditional tale of Haydn's attempt to persuade his prince that the musicians wanted to go back to their wives and families for the winter. Instead, in this version, Haydn was trying to convince his employer not to lay off musicians -- an interpretation that somehow seems more likely given the ways of court life at the time. In any event, the finale, as the forces are gradually reduced to a pair of violins, displays the timbres of the old instruments to their best advantage but again fails to catch the winking, humorous quality of the music. Despite the usual strong engineering from the Ricercar label, this release has more to offer for true historical performance devotees than for general listeners.