Search - Franz Joseph Haydn, Charles Mackerras, Orchestra of St. Luke's :: Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 31 "Hornsignal" & 45 "Farewell"

Charm, intimacy, beauty and great sound!

SwissDave | Switzerland | 02/27/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I would hate this to get overlooked only because no one else has taken the time to type a review. I'll admit I first heard this at an audiophile expo many years ago - to some extent sound IS music (and I'm saying this unashamedly as someone who nonetheless collects historical records!). It's a so-called "one-point" recording using just one microphone per channel, a method that when well-applied, yields the finest spatial reproduction (depth and width!). It can be difficult to get orchestral balances right, and/or the right sense between overall impact (sound pressure) and detail, but if done right, nothing (and I mean nothing - forget multi-channel) sounds this real. And this is one of the finest one-point recordings I have ever heard.



More importantly, this seems to me the best of the three Haydn discs Mackerras recorded for Telarc musically. Why? Because he's unashamed to go right to the heart of the chamber music-like intimacy of these earlier symphonies. These performances exude a charm (and, among other, beauty of solo playing in the slow movements) that will warm you up in a cold winter night. Even in the company of the recordings of admittedly more popular symphonies, this is a desert island disc. If you're wondering why Mackerras, apart from recording the obvious Nos. 100, 101, 103 and 104, chose these two earlier symphonies, this may well be the answer: these are hidden treasures that sound as if they're possibly closer to his heart. Played and recorded like this, they've certainly become close to mine.



Greetings Switzerland, David."