Cherubini: Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn / Symphony (Cappella
Phoenix175

Haydn: Soprano Cantatas - Berenice, che fai / Miseri noi / Violin Concerto No. 4 / Symphony No. 92 (Schmiege, Seifert, Cappella Coloniensis)
Phoenix176

Stamitz: Concerto for 2 Clarinets No. 4 / Orchestral Quartet in G major / Stamitz: Clarinet Concerto in B flat major (Deinzer)
Phoenix177

WDR broadcasts from Cologne offer wonderful performances by Cappella Coloniensis, of clarinet concertos by Carl and Johann Stamitz (Phoenix177) Cherubini’s Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn, beautifully sung by Marilyn Schmiege, Martyn Hill and Paolo Barbacini and Symphony in D Major (Phoenix175), symphonies by Gossec, Vanhal, Mahaut and Kraus (Phoenix174), flute concertos by Frederick the Great, Telemann and Fasch (Phoenix172), overtures by Heinchen, Graupner (with prominent use of a pair of clarinets), Fasch and Graun (noticeably old fashioned) (Phoenix173), and a Haydn disc featuring several cantatas, well sung by Schmiege, the Fourth Violin Concerto, well played by Ingrid Siefert and the Symphony No.92 (Phoenix176). All these discs are worthwhile, but the symphonies, Haydn and Cherubini discs are essential.

Ingrid Seifert’s credentials as a historically aware performer are, of course, well established, since she was the founder of London Baroque. Her performance of Violin Concerto No.4 is an attractive one and she is ably partnered by Linde and the Cappella…Ferdinand Leitner is best known as the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for DG’s classic stereo remakes of Wilhelm Kempff’s Beethoven Piano Concertos. He also made a number of Haydn and Mozart recordings for DG, none of which is currently available. I recall these as being old-school performances, albeit of the sensitive Karl Böhm or Eugen Jochum variety rather than in overblown big-band style.

If I’d heard this performance of the ‘Oxford’ Symphony when it was recorded in 1987, I’d probably have thought it delicate but not fragile, and sensitive to the spirit of the music; it still sounds like a happy compromise between the ‘traditional’ and the ‘authentic’…Perhaps it would be more appropriate to compare Leitner’s performance with the well-received Naxos recording (8.550387, Capella Istropolitana/Barry Wordsworth) where the size of the ensemble and the performances themselves are similar, with almost identical tempi. In the slow movement Leitner is a little faster than Wordsworth, though not to the extent that I felt that his performance sounded unfeeling—just the opposite, in fact. I expected to find Leitner’s ‘Oxford’ Symphony old-fashioned but ended by enjoying it.

Choice of couplings may resolve the choice. With Wordsworth you also get enjoyable performances of Symphonies Nos. 85 (La Reine) from the Paris set and No. 103 (Drumroll) from the second London series, not the most logical coupling but, perhaps, preferable to the omnium gatherum on Phoenix.