Haydn - Symphony 87 [Dutoit-Sinfonietta De Montreal] It's good to dip into this 4 disc box set again [with the Roy Goodman Paris Symphonies i added to the back of this set], last month i played Symphony 84 [22nd February 2011], Haydn has 104 Symphonies, so it's a lot to get to know, i don't know anyone who can really delve into his Symphonic oeuvre properly, i certainly know these 6 Paris Symphonies more than his other Symphonies put together, and i prefer them to his London Symphonies.
Charles Dutoit is Swiss, born in 1936, now 84 years old, he was with the Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal for 25 years [of which this smaller band is culled from], the front and back inserts show the fleur-de-lis symbols in mauve with a sort of wallpaper background in purple, a nice idea on which the photograph [by Julian Broad] and lettering are placed, looks great, this Symphony was recorded in 1991.
Well for me the first movement is incredible, and it's a shame Haydn couldn't keep the high level of creation in the rest of the movements, the opening first movement Vivace in my opinion is better than the other three movements put together, it's not a long movement [just 6:32], there's no intro by Haydn unlike other Symphonies, we go straight into the rapid gunfire delivery, and it's those darker strings, no doubt cellos and basses that have that wonderful rapid fire tutti [0:08 & 0:16], that the violins join in right away [0:11 & 0:19], it's so enthusiastic and contagious, the opening comes to a head at [0:53], where the music has an extra burst of energy, and the violins have a couple of downward slashing figures one after the other [1:02 & 1:06], which are such a satisfying culmination at the end of this opening, however the whole thing erupts again [1:39], and it's certainly a feature of Haydn to present things in little cells, and then have them return again and again, like an ever revolving carousel, after a middle trio where some different variations of the opening material are presented, the opening returns again [4:48], but more with a 'culmination' feel to it all, it's a fairly short movement that hits you again and again, i just love some of the opening movements by Haydn, and this is one of them.
Here's Hubert Soudant conducting the first movement on YouTube.
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