This complete set of Haydn's six ''Paris Symphonies'' fills a surprising gap in the CD catalogue. Philips last year issued the coupling of the last two symphonies, Nos. 86 and 87, in Sir Neville Marriner's refined, athletic readings (CD 412 888-2PH, 5/86), but they were the only two in the full original LP set of six with the Academy that were recorded digitally.
Karajan's 1980 recordings here are fully digital, but the sound is far from ideal and I suspect that new transfers of Marriner in the earlier symphonies would—as in the last two—prove more acceptable than this collection. There is a good historic case for presenting these works, as Karajan does, on a fairly large scale, but the weight of the 'big-band' sound is made heavier still, when in Berlin's Philharmonie it relates to no specific acoustic. Heaviest of all are the minuets, taken very slowly, though in some of the Allegros I prefer Karajan's relatively comfortable speeds to the often hectic ones of Marriner. But with violins sounding fierce, the bluff, unselfconscious jollity of the readings, clearly intended, is never fully conveyed, even in the famous clucking second subject of No. 83 (La poule). It is a great pity when there is so much to enjoy here, and Karajan is never guilty of sounding mannered or over-refined.'