Solti is an amazingly unpredictable conductor. His early international reputation rests on his exhilaratingly brilliant survey of Wagner's Ring cycle, but in the concert hall and on some of his records the emotional fire can lead to too great a degree of tautness. Yet he can relax and produce wonderfully beguiling recordings of Schubert symphonies, not lacking excitement but with a balancing mellowness to catch the Schubertian innocence. In Haydn his approach has been chimerical. His first two records were slightly marred by what RG described as a ''rather hard-driven and over emphatic'' approach to fast movements. But in his coupling of Nos. 95 and 104 (Decca 417 330-1DH; CD 417 330-2DH, 1/87) everything came together and that is a superb record embodying vitality but with conveyed wit and enjoyment too. Now in this latest pairing of No. 93 (a symphony much loved by Sir Thomas Beecham) and No. 99, two of Haydn's very finest late works, he is again in his element. He secures marvellous playing from the LPO throughout, particularly the strings, whose phrasing is ever graceful and whose timbre is subtly transparent, as caught by the superb Decca recording, made in Walthamstow Town Hall. The wind are splendid too and in No. 93 one can't help noticing the chuckling bassoon at the elegant arrival and reprise of the first movement's captivating second subject, while he shines again in the slow movement which is beautifully done.
Solti opens both symphonies boldly and with a sense of gravitas, while there is imaginative use of light and shade even before the allegros begin. Pacing is admirable, the first movement is rather more relaxed in No. 93 than in No. 99, where the allegro is crisp and vivaciously fast to suit the spirit of the music with a contrast provided in the serene Adagio which is flowingly spacious. Again, the character of the minuets is quite different in each work; No. 93 weightier (but with plenty of rhythmic lift) No. 94 lighter, crisply and incisively articulated with a delicious oboe solo in the trio, worthy of Sir Thomas in its affectionate elegance. Both finales offer playing which is consistently refined, not lacking moments of robustness, yet with vigour and lyrical feeling in happy partnership.
The Decca sound is up to the highest standards of the house, analytical in its detail, natural in its timbres and wonderfully fresh. The Philips Concertgebouw recording of No. 93 for Sir Colin Davis, by the very nature of the hall acoustics is inevitably less sharp in inner detail, but that too is a very fine record and the performances having an agreeable Beechamesque warmth.'