Compared with Mozart, Haydn is scarcely at all thought of as a composer of concertos, save perhaps by specialists. Nevertheless, he wrote a number of works in the form, and although the three played here are all early ones from around his thirtieth year they are skilful and charming if—by his standards at least—somewhat old-fashioned in language and structure, and in debt to Italian models. The Double Concerto in F major that is played first was originally for organ and violin, but even in Haydn's lifetime the cembalo part was more often played on the harpsichord or fortepiano. It is an eloquent piece and the two instruments make an attractive pair as played by Adelina and Justin Oprean, the piano giving a sound crisp enough to feel authentic.
As for the two violin concertos, here too is a presentation with eighteenth-century poise and lyricism in the right proportions, played with a harpsichord continuo. Oprean's tone is sweet but she has plenty of attack too, not least in the more demanding C major Concerto which Haydn composed for Alois Luigi Tomasini, the Italian violinist who led the Esterhazy court orchestra. (This has a lovely slow movement in which the soloist sings over pizzicato strings.) Her own cadenzas to all three works are entirely appropriate.
The recording was made in a North London church and sounds extremely lifelike, and while there is a fair degree of reverberation I found it quite acceptable. Altogether, this Hyperion Helios CD may be warmly recommended, especially since it comes at medium price. It has a well-chosen front illustration of Gerrit Dou's seventeenth-century painting, The Young Violinist.'