Cover image Haydn Symphonies 78 – 81 Accademia Bizantina Ottavio Dantone via Decca.
In recent years Italy has produced some world-leading Baroque instrumental and vocal ensembles. Concerto Italiano led by Rinaldo Alessandrini and Europa Galante directed by Fabio Biondi come to mind, both happily having visited our shores in recent years. Along with the revelatory transformation of the Sistine Chapel Choir (see review:
Cantate Domino | Sistine Chapel Choir) could this, I wondered, be another Renaissance in Italian culture, at least in performance? And now the Ravenna-based Accademia Bizantina directed by Ottavio Dantone specialising in Classical repertoire comes to my attention with this very fine recording produced last year of four Symphonies by Franz Joseph Haydn (Nos 78 to 81) over two CDs. It seems implausible, as the commentary claims, that two (79 and 81) here receive their first recording on period instruments and in an historically appropriate style.
Here is very near faultless playing with exquisite phrasing, carefully considered rhetorical gesture and mature rapport. With just 15 strings, woodwind and horns (no keyboard continuo as might be expected) we hear lucid interpretations of unforced grace, delicate subtlety and rich imagination. Repeats are all gratefully observed. Tuning is spot-on and there is infectious buoyancy ranging across a wide expressive compass.
Highlights include the Adagio of Symphony No 78, an entertainingly incongruous mixture of bluster and coyness, along with the exquisite style of the third movement Trio. The Adagio of Symphony No 80 is a Classical masterpiece in one movement. But it is the Andante of Symphony No 81, actually a set of variations, which I have played over and over, so haunting for its refinement, succinctness, elegance and sheer loveliness that I wish it would never end.
This is glorious, richly imagined and realised playing, and very rewarding to hear. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars out of 5
Accademia Bizantina
Ottavio Dantone
Haydn Symphonies 78-81
478 8837
Decca
