Like previous instalments in Hänssler’s Haydn cycle, these superbly recorded performances of five symphonies from the years c1768 to 1776 equally invigorate and exasperate. Doubtless because there is already built-in zaniness aplenty, Thomas Fey doesn’t seem to feel the need to “do” much to Il distratto, No 60, beyond the odd trademark tempo manipulation. He is careful not to over-egg the first movement’s “absent-minded” jokes. The Trio tears in at a much faster speed than the Minuet, its bagpipe drones raucously emphasised. Typically, too, the Presto fourth movement and whirlwind finale outdo all comers in pace and ferocity.

No 61 starts promisingly, with a mingled breadth and rhythmic verve in the first movement and a chamber-musical delicacy in the pastoral Adagio. Then, after a swaggering, up-tempo Minuet, Fey chooses an enervatingly slow tempo for the Trio. He also tricks out the repeats with new articulation (staccato instead of slurred quavers) and has the basses play pizzicato where Haydn prescribes arco. Irritation only grows on repeated hearings. Even more than in No 60, the frantically paced finale is a dazzling circus act. But if you want grace and wit, go to Adám Fischer (Brilliant Classics, 8/02).

The three symphonies on the other disc likewise provoke mingled exhilaration and frustration. Again, colour, inventiveness and crackling, abrasive energy abound, though for me the tinkling harpsichord continuo used throughout adds only nuisance value. Rarely can the outer movements of the so-called Fire Symphony, No 59, have sounded so combustible. Thrilling, too, are the lusty collisions of triple and duple time in the Minuet of No 65, and the same symphony’s “hunting” finale, fully vindicating its headlong pacing (phenomenal horn-playing here). But No 59’s Andante is curiously sluggish and over-accented – no hint here of Haydn’s più tosto allegretto qualification. And the Minuet’s Trio sounds as mannered as No 61’s, with finnicky, micromanaged phrasing and cute little rallentandi. Even more perverse is the treatment of No 57’s Adagio, based on charming, bar-by-bar alternations of plucked and bowed strings. Fey knowingly underlines the contrast by lingering over each of the bowed phrases, thus seriously unbalancing the structure. It’s all the more frustrating that the other movements of this splendid, neglected symphony are played with such zest and panache. But that’s Fey’s Haydn for you.