Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 26 & 86 – Harry Christophers

   in Classical Music (Apr, 2018)
Haydn’s 26th Symphony is one of his most fascinating: both first and second movements feature plainchant, integrated in a work of Sturm und Drang. Christophers presents the powerful, restless first movement perfectly, the raucous valveless horns of its close perfectly judged. The first plainchant melody provides the first movement second subject; the real magic is the oboe’s long-breathed second movement statement of a theme from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The unusual nature of the symphony continues in opting to end on a (robust) Menuet. Haydn’s Symphony No 86, one of the ‘Paris’ symphonies, is full of D-major life in Christophers’ reading.

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