This disc completes Slatkin’s survey of the “London” Symphonies and confirms his credentials as an urbane and attentive Haydn interpreter. No. 95, the least favoured of the set, and No. 97 come off particularly well. With no hint of ponderousness, Slatkin brings an imposing breadth and weight to the first movement and Minuet of No. 95, while the brilliant contrapuntal sallies in the finale (Haydn’s tribute to Mozart’s Jupiter?) gain much from the division of the violins left and right. The aggressively extrovert Vivace that opens No. 97 has a fine snap and thrust to its rhythms, the mounting tensions of the development powerfully realized; and Slatkin clearly relishes the strut and swagger of the Minuet and the comic bravado of the finale. Here and elsewhere the playing of the Philharmonia is alert and refined, with delectable work from the woodwind. In the slow movements of both these symphonies Slatkin phrases warmly and graciously, bringing out the felicities of Haydn’s part-writing – as at the opening of No. 95’s Andante, or in the chromatic coda (4'29''). RCA’s recordings combine clarity with ample body and presence.
