Haydn's three 'programe' symphonies of 1761 are the most colourful and fetching of all his early works. They were probably the first music he composed after his appointment to the service of the Esterhazy family; and their frequent concertante writing, with solos for all the instruments, was obviously designed both to flatter the players in his charge and to demonstrate their prowess to Prince Paul Anton. First violin and first cello are handsomely endowed with extended, often florid solo passages, especially in the slow movements of Nos. 6 and 7 (that in No. 7 culminates in an elaborate duet cadenza). The flute (which in Haydn's early symphonies is usually confined to slow movements) is also particularly favoured here, while the trios of all three minuets spotlight, of all unlikely instruments, the double-bass. The programmatic element, incidently, is mild: there is a sunrise at the opening of Le matin, a modest precursor of the great sunrises in The Creation and The Seasons, while the finale of Le soir depicts a very genial tempest.
Both of these discs offer lively, decently played readings of Haydn's symphonic trilogy, but neither is entirely satisfactory. The virtues of Dorati's complete cycle, recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, have been expounded frequently in these columns, but I don't find him and the Philharmonia Hungarica at their most convincing in these early symphonies. It was probably easier in 1973 to accept a fullish string sound in these works; but nowadays we have come to expect airier, more transparent textures in such music. To my 1990 ears the strings are too massive, an impression strengthened by the reverberant, slightly hard-edged recording. Woodwind detail is frequently soaked up in the tuttis, and rapid string passages lack clean definition. Another drawback is the variable quality of Dorati's soloists: woodwind and horns are excellent, but the all-important first violin has an uningratiating, rather acidic tone-quality; and he and his other string colleagues all suffer from frequent moments of dubious intonation. Dorati's bright, vital way with the faster movements is often appealing, though at times (notably in the opening and closing Allegros of No. 7) he can drive the music too hard. Minuets are sturdy, perhaps slightly heavy (and the strange, dark-toned trio of No. 6 is rhythmically sticky), while slow movements are carefully shaped but a touch graceless, with no feeling of the dance in the Andante of Le matin.
In some ways the performances by Adam Fischer and his Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra have the edge over Dorati and his band of Hungarian exiles. Fischer's body of strings is appreciably smaller, and his violin and cello soloists sweeter-toned, surer in their intonation and more imaginative in their phrasing. In the slow movements the greater refinement of Fischer's soloists and his rather lighter touch are invariably more persuasive. In the Allegros honours are more even, with Fischer more affectionate and relaxed, though sometimes a bit bland, lacking Dorati's rhythmic incisiveness. But as on previous Haydn discs from this team recorded in the palace at Eisenstadt, the performances are ill-served by the acoustic, considerably more reverberant than the already resonant ambience given to Dorati. Horns (balanced artificially forward?) peal out well in the tuttis, but time and time again salient lines for both woodwind and strings are lost in an agreeable blur: as one instance among many, the important dotted violin figures in bars 70ff. of Le soir's Andante are barely audible beneath the long-held suspensions in the other parts.
If you want a recording of these entertaining symphonies that uses modern instruments, I'd suggest you turn to the version by Marriner and the ASMF on Philips. It is stylish and immaculately played, with outstanding solo work, and is much more cleanly recorded than either Dorati or Fischer. Best of all, to my mind, are the buoyant, light-textured period-instrument performances from Pinnock and The English Concert on Archiv, which bring more colour and pungency to the music than any of the more urbane moderninstrument versions.'