HAYDN. SYMPHONIES. No. 1 in D major; No. 13 in D major; No. 28 in A major. Bolzano Haydn Orchestra conducted by Antonio Pedrotti. Turnabout Q TV4128 0 TV34128S (12 in., 15s. plus 2s. 8d. PT).

By an odd coincidence, these same three symphonies were recorded on a Parlophone disc of 1953 by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Jonathan Sternberg, but in the last ten years only No. 13 has been available in this country—in a 1965 recording by Leslie Jones and the Little Orchestra of London. Much as I like Haydn, I recognise that quite a lot of his earlier music does not merit repeated hearing. It may be that we should know what his first symphony was like just because it was the first, but in truth it is nothing much. Only the beautiful minor-key episode in the slow movement holds promise of future greatness. The first movement has curiosity value in that it starts with a 'Mannheim Crescendo', a device Haydn used very seldom, but the Mannheimers themselves wrote many better first movements. Haydn's No. 13 is altogether more worth-while, and indeed this one should always be in the catalogue. The slow movement is a 'cello solo from beginning to end, the Minuet is full of the sort of horse-play that would utterly defeat any attempt to dance to it, while the finale is based on the same four-note theme as the finale of Mozart's Jupiter, and develops it with an attention rare in the 1760s. No. 28 starts with a fussy movement that I find irritating, but it is redeemed by a marvellous Minuet and Trio, the latter having a strange, hushed Balkan flavour that rivets the attention. The slow movement is curious in that it keeps sitting down and making no progress for bars on end, like someone stopping to admire the view. This quite often happens in Dvofak, but you don't expect it in Haydn. Dedicated playing makes the rather thin writing wholly persuasive.

Antonio Pedrotti will be known to some readers for a Respighi disc made with the Czech Philharmonic, but the Bolzano Haydn Orchestra seems to be a new ensemble. The strings play with alert efficiency and excellent style. In some places I wished the horns had been less subdued, but in general the balance is good, and the quality, though a little hard, is good enough. Unfortunately there is usually a slight drop in pitch between the end of one movement and the start of the next, and in the finale of No. 13 there is a sudden drop in the middle of the music. These pitch fluctuations are apparent in both mono and stereo.

R.F.