Pleasurable anticipation at a rare chance to hear The Seven Last Words in their original orchestral version curdled to irritation when I discovered that what we get here is simply the familiar string quartet arrangement played on multiple strings – though the CD cover gives no inkling of this. In consequence, Haydn’s sublime Passion meditations have neither the intimacy of the quartet version nor the colour and (most obviously in the final Earthquake) sheer physical power of the original.

The sense of an opportunity missed is all the more acute given that the performance per se is skilled and thoughtful. Gábor Takács-Nagy, one-time leader of the Takács Quartet, chooses aptly broad yet never static tempi, resisting the temptation to seek specious variety by taking some movements at a flowing Andante (the final “Word” often suffers in this respect). If the major-key vision of Paradise in No 2 could be more seraphic, Takács-Nagy and his 16 strong band respond vividly to the music’s drama, tenderness and (especially in Nos 4 and 5) dissonant anguish, always sensitive to Haydn’s remote, mystical modulations – say, in Nos 3 and 5. But time and again I missed the composer’s inspired wind colouring: the sombre glint of the four horns in No 2, the flute “halo” in No 3 or the lone, grieving oboe in No 6. For these, and so many other orchestral beauties, you must turn to Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations (Alia Vox, 12/07) or, for a grander, more monumental performance, Riccardo Muti and the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI).