These are vivid and fresh performances that bring these still relatively unfamiliar concertos written around 1770 into sharp focus. The sound as recorded in Edinburgh's Queen's Hall is too immediate to be ideal, allowing the odd sniff to be heard and permitting few if any half tones or dynamics less than mezzo forte. But Andrea Cappelletti performs with an attractive early-classical energy that reminds us—perhaps because the soloist is Italian and studied at Naples and also because the first performer of these concertos was probably Luigi Tomasini, who led the Esterhazy orchestra that Haydn directed—of the composer's evident debt to Italian baroque masters born a generation or so before him. Vivaldi is the name that comes first to mind, though cadenzas here tell us that the music is from a later and different school. The CD deserves support not only for its intrinsic qualities but also because the proceeds from its sale go to help development work by the charitable foundation Il Canale, whose records in Italy ''are offered for the total benefit of UNICEF''—the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.
The Philips version of the First Concerto by Isabelle van Keulen (the European Young Musician of the Year in 1984) and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under Antoni Ros-Marba is coupled with a Mozart concerto, K211. This too has ample energy but is a trifle wearing in sound with little variety and the length of just under 42 minutes is far from generous by CD standards. Thomas Zehetmair's Teldec/ASV CD is even shorter and the acoustic is reverberant, but the playing Las more character and the Adagio is especially good, while in general the recording is remarkably truthful-sounding. The Michael Haydn coupling is useful too with its brilliant finale. But for those who want three Joseph Haydn concertos together and nearly 30 more minutes music into the bargain, the new Dynamic CD may be recommended.'