Over many decades, founder Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the early music ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien have maintained an exemplary musical relationship that has yielded wonderful results in the Baroque and Classical fields, particularly in their strongly characterized and idiomatic performances of music by Mozart and Haydn. This triple-disc collection of Haydn's marvelous "Paris" Symphonies, Nos. 82-87, is topnotch, for it displays the musicians' high standards in all aspects of historical scholarship and period performance ...
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Over many decades, founder Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the early music ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien have maintained an exemplary musical relationship that has yielded wonderful results in the Baroque and Classical fields, particularly in their strongly characterized and idiomatic performances of music by Mozart and Haydn. This triple-disc collection of Haydn's marvelous "Paris" Symphonies, Nos. 82-87, is topnotch, for it displays the musicians' high standards in all aspects of historical scholarship and period performance practice, and offers interpretations that are admirable for their freshness, good humor, and zest. Harnoncourt approaches these symphonies with a lively, unfettered imagination, ever alert to Haydn's unpredictability and keen to avoid stuffy mannerisms. As a result of his spontaneity, his orchestra is inspired to play in a buoyant and insouciant manner that always surprises and never bores. The nicknamed symphonies, No. 82, "The Bear"; No. 83, "The Chicken"; and No. 85, "The Queen of...
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