Three substantial symphonies, sturdily performed and lucidly recorded, for under a fiver almost disarms criticism. At the rate they're going Barry Wordsworth and the Bratislava-based Capella Istropolitana look set to become the most recorded team of all time. But contrary to what you might expect, given the orchestra's prodigious output, the interpretations show many signs of being carefully prepared; and if the violins sometimes lack the last degree of refinement, the Capella Istropolitana is a highly proficient chamber-group, with generally excellent intonation and ensemble and tangy, characterful wind—though I wish these had been balanced slightly more forwardly in Nos. 45 and 102.
To my mind the glittering, ceremonial No. 48 comes off best here, the outer movements and Minuet strong and broadly paced, their texture dominated by the brave pealings of the C alto horns. And the Adagio is phrased with real delicacy and affection. The Farewell is given an honest, robust reading, a bit cautious in the fast outer movements (rhythms could be more incisive here), though the Minuet and the programmatic final Adagio are both very neatly managed. At first I feared the performance of No. 102, one of Haydn's boldest, most far-reaching works, would be rather plain, low in emotional voltage. But for all its deliberate pacing the opening Vivace is surely and shrewdly built, developing a fine cumulative tension (a thrilling crescendo from the hard-stick timpani at the outset of the recapitulation—7'15''). And if Wordsworth takes the Minuet at a sedate, Beechamesque tempo without quite matching Beecham's rhythmic legerdemain, his steady approach to the finale reveals the music's strength and pawky humour more readily than the slickly virtuosic performances one sometimes hears. There may be readings of slightly greater polish and penetration in the catalogue; but at the price asked this disc is an almost ridiculous bargain.'