Haydn Symphonies & Mozart Violin Concerto No 3

Coro

JJJ

More Haydn from America’s Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra – plus the first in its Mozart violin concerto series, featuring leader Aisslinn Nosky. This latest release is a classical sandwich, the Mozart concerto (his third in G) embraced by two Haydn symphonies, the early No 26 (Lamentatione )and later Paris symphony, No 86. Harry Christophers, the orchestra’s artistic director, finds heart and soul in the music: a rather gutsy and grainy Lamentatione ,the rawness of the period string sound imbuing its elemental stürm und drang with a delightful archaism; and a wholesomeness in the later symphony, with its fuller orchestration and risk taking. These are absorbing performances, edge of the seat at times. It’s in the Mozart that the playing style is less than convincing. Nosky’s sound can be clean and zestful, but it occasionally loses its steely focus.