This is the third instalment in Leonard Slatkin’s series of Haydn’s “London” Symphonies (the first was reviewed in 2/95), again bringing fresh, refined readings at speeds on the fast side that never sound breathless. That includes minuets in the modern manner treated as fast landler movements, more than half-way to becoming scherzos. The pity is that the first work on the disc, No. 93, suffers from a recording noticeably less full-bodied than the rest. It greatly reduces the impact of dynamic contrasts, and the opening of the slow movement on solo strings (following the marking in the score) offers the sound of a rather distant string quartet.
That recording was made at Abbey Road over four years ago, followed by the other two – No. 100 also at Abbey Road and No. 99 at Blackheath Concert Halls – in the succeeding 12 months. Those later recordings, while maintaining clean textures – lighter than usual from a full modern orchestra – have more presence and body. I particularly enjoyed the genuine, tripping Allegretto that Slatkin adopts for the second movement of the Military, giving even more swagger than usual to the military incursions from which the symphony gets its nickname.
Anyone collecting the Slatkin series will not be disappointed, but it is worth noting that these three symphonies are also included on the first disc of Sir Colin Davis’s Concertgebouw series on Philips Duo: that means that on a two-CD issue – two for the price of one – you get three extra symphonies – Nos. 91, 97 and 101. On balance it is Davis’s set that would be my first choice among modern-instrument versions of the “London” Symphonies, with recordings (mostly analogue) more vivid than these.'