For Your Consideration: 'Gemma Bovery'

Gemma Bovery, directed by Anne Fontaine

France is a place where books still matter, where politicians like to be photographed with a copy of Montaigne's Essais in hand. Having had literary conversations there with taxi drivers, waiters, and bartenders, I was taken with the conceit of Gemma Bovery, the new feature by French director Anne Fontaine (Coco avant Chanel), about a baker in Normandy obsessed with Flaubert's Madame Bovary. When this nosy, bookish provincial, played by Fabrice Luchini with the same mumbling subtlety as his Monsieur Jourdain in Laurent Tirard's Molière, sees a British couple named Bovery move into the ruin across the street, his imagination runs wild. Not only do the bored, flirtatious Gemma (the seductive Gemma Arterton) and boring, oblivious Charlie (Jason Flemyng) resemble Flaubert's characters, Luchini's Joubert believes that he has the power to make his neighbors follow the course of his favorite novel. In other words, he enjoys the power of a novelist over his characters.

It is all too easy for Gemma to fall into the arms of Hervé de Bressigny, who as the son of the local nobility back in the area to study for his law exams is an amalgamation of both Rodolphe and Léon, played with entitled ease by Niels Schneider (J'ai tué ma mère). Gemma's dissatisfaction with the provincial small-mindedness of her neighbors is conveyed through the petty status consciousness of Wizzy and Rankin, a French woman and Englishman played with nouveau-riche empty-headedness by Elsa Zylberstein (Farinelli) and Pip Torrens (Bel Ami). Some of the best dialogue in the film is spoken by Luchini, as Joubert defends French socialism with curmudgeonly obstinacy against Rankin's capitalist rhetoric, or as he chastises his son, who appears to like video games more than books -- "It would be better if you took drugs rather than saying such dumb shit," Joubert tells his son at the dinner table -- all under the supercilious disapproval of his shrewish wife (Isabelle Candelier).

Other Reviews: New York Times | Wall Street Journal | Washington Post | AV Club The New Yorker | New York Magazine | NPR | Village Voice

Mme. Joubert's exasperation is understandable, because her husband's obsession with the Boverys is more than just literary. The parallels with Flaubert break down quickly, in fact, as neither Gemma nor Charlie is as exasperating as the corresponding character in the novel. Charlie is left mostly undeveloped, compared to Charles Bovary, and both, in fact, are quite sympathetic, with the additional financial tragedy of the book's characters left out of the screenplay. (Sophie Barthes has a new film adaptation of Madame Bovary, starring Mia Wasikowska and Paul Giamatti, which we hope to review soon.) Fontaine and Pascal Bonitzer adapted the screenplay from the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, and cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne captures the Norman countryside near Rouen in all of its damp, rural glory. A subtle, minimalist-flavored score by Bruno Coulais (Coraline) heightens the effect.

This film opens today at area theaters, including Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema.

Remembering 'Castrapolis'

The Festival Les Voix Royales is mid-run at the Château de Versailles, ending on July 2. The program is focused in part on the castrato voice, not the actual voice, of course, but works composed for it. Next week will feature a performance of Leonardo Vinci's opera Catone in Utica, written for a cast that included four castrati, Giovanni Carestini, Giacinto Fontana ("Il Farfallino"), Giovanni Battista Minelli, and Giovanni Ossi. Marie-Aude Roux has an interesting preview for Le Monde, from her trip to Naples (A Naples, dans les vestiges de « Castrapolis », June 9), the city so associated with the castrato that Charles Burney dubbed it "Castrapolis" (my translation):

We have left Naples under the blue sky of March 28 to go to Caserta, some 30 km to the north, and the royal residence of the Bourbons, a magnificent replica of Versailles, built starting in 1752 by the architect Luigi Vanvitelli [...] the monumental palace of 47,000 square meters (or 27 square meters more than Versailles) sits on a property of 120 hectare, including three km of canals and waterfalls. It also has a court theater of exceptional beauty. Versailles did not go wrong in using it as the model for its royal opera, inaugurated in 1770 for the marriage of the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI. [...]

Beyond the composers Alessandro Scarlatti, Nicola Porpora, Leonardo Leo, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Niccolo Jomelli, Niccolo Piccinni, and Domenico Cimarosa, there is one whose rediscovery has been blazing thanks to the countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic: that is Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730), whose final opera, Artaserse, this fervent lover of Naples revived in 2012, recorded on disc and DVD for Erato with a staggering cast, exclusively masculine. Versailles will have the revival of another work by Vince, Catone in Utica. "Besides its absolutely ingenious music, I have been struck by the psychological depth of the Metastasio libretto," explains Cencic. "The pretext of a dispute between Cato and Caesar for reasons of state is quickly surpassed by a stunning gallery of narcissistic perverts who are megalomaniacs of varying degrees. And this was long before Freud!"

The opera was premiered in Rome in 1728 and then revived in Naples four years later. Hopefully some of the concerts from this festival at Versailles will become available for streaming eventually.

Royal Ballet's Feisty New 'Don Quixote'

Carlos Acosta (Basilio) and Marianela Nuñez (Kitri) in Don Quixote, Royal Ballet (photo by Dave Morgan)
The Royal Ballet has come from London to the Kennedy Center Opera House for the week. The residency is devoted entirely to the U.S. premiere of Carlos Acosta's freshening-up of Petipa's classic (read: moldy) choreography of Don Quixote, which was last seen here from the Mariinsky Ballet in 2009. The British company was ready for a hit after its last two visits to the area, a somewhat old-fashioned The Sleeping Beauty in 2006 and, by all accounts, a truly odd Manon in 2009. Acosta has made the most significant changes to the second act, getting rid of the puppet theater episode, but he also changes the role of Don Quixote by creating a separate role for Dulcinea, who appears in several dream-like visions, elevating the old man's story, making it more noble instead of allowing him always to be ridiculed. My only wish was that Acosta had eliminated some of the less distinguished music from the lackluster score by Ludwig Minkus, which at full length ran to three hours with two intermissions. Getting rid of the dullest twenty or thirty minutes would be a blessing.

This performance managed (mostly) to sustain interest largely because of the star pairing of Acosta himself and Marianela Nuñez as Basilio and Kitri. Nuñez is a sassy dynamo as Kitri, bursting onto the stage in Act I in her red costume, and giving Basilio, her father, and everyone else a run for their money with her pert gestures. In that first scene together, she and Acosta one-up each other in a love-hate dynamic, him stealing her fan and making the same imperious gesture with it that she does, her mocking his confident swagger with his own guitar. When they come together, to that lovely cello solo, they melted into one another, Acosta supporting Nuñez with one arm while he held his guitar in the other. Nuñez is a musical dancer, always moving in a way that suggests visually that the pulse of the music is flowing through her. Acosta's strength is his magnetism, especially now that his youth and strength are waning: in the Act I finale, Basilio holds Kitri fully over his head, while she stretches one leg straight up in the air, during which Acosta wavered in a way that wracked the nerves.

Other Reviews: Sarah Kaufman, ‘Don Quixote’: Flirting with greatness (Washington Post, June 10) Carolyn Keleman, The Royal Ballet’s ‘Don Quixote’ at The Kennedy Center (D.C. Metro Theater Arts, June 10)

Kristen McNally gave a delicate, noble air to the role of Dulcinea, first appearing to Don Quixote (an earnest Christopher Saunders) in his bedroom during the prologue, in a while veil and mostly en pointe like one of the Wilis. At that point, too, Acosta introduces another figment of Don Quixote's imagination, a group of black-hooded apparitions, probably derived from the funeral procession episode in the novel, who later whisk Sancho Panza (athletic and buffoonish Philip Mosley) away as Don Quixote finds himself in the land of the dryads. The designs by Tim Hatley are all quite impressive: a huge piazza of rolling buildings in Act I; a glowing sunset behind vines for Act II, with a windmill that grows more menacing in size; and especially a luscious land of the dryads, with enormous purple flowers and rolling fog, the background for a delightful ballet blanc featuring the ethereal corps de ballet.

Sadly, Acosta kept all the toreador business, although Ryoichi Hirano and Laura Morera were a beautiful couple as Espada and Mercedes. Melissa Hamilton was a reserved Queen of the Dryads, and Meaghan Grace Hinkis made a sparkling, eye-winking Amour, one coy finger on her chin. Conductor Martin Yates did a good job holding together the performance of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, although his arrangement of some of the gypsy music to feature actual guitars, which had to be amplified, did not sound like an improvement.

Performances by the Royal Ballet continue through June 14, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Marianela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta dance at only one remaining performance (June 12), and Natalia Osipova has already withdrawn from the June 13 performance.

Classical Month in Washington (July/August 2015)

Precious little is going on in classical music in the months of July and August. If you are going to stay in the city, there a few good choices, and for those who want to travel, even more.

IN THE AREA:
The two opera festivals in the area both have some interesting productions. The Castleton Festival, just one year after the loss of founding spirit Lorin Maazel, has put up a season, but a reduced one. They will stage two operas, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (July 3, 5, 10, 18) and Ravel's L'heure espagnole on a double-bill with something called Scalia/Ginsburg (July 11, 17, 19), and Fabio Luisi will conduct the Castleton Festival Orchestra in something (July 19).

Much closer and more interesting is the rest of the season from Wolf Trap Opera, beginning with a rare and highly improbable stab at John Corigliano's sprawling and rewarding The Ghosts of Versailles (July 10, 12, 15, 18) in the Barns, plus a single performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly with amplification and mosquitoes in the Filene Center (August 7).

The biggest area opera event of the summer, though, is the concert performance of Verdi's Aida (July 24), with a cast featuring Marjorie Owens, Carl Tanner, and Michelle DeYoung joining the National Symphony Orchestra. The NSO will play a couple of other concerts at Wolf Trap, as it does every summer, but none come close to this event.

If you are starved for a piano recital, we do recommend the free recital by Sara Daneshpour at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (July 12). So far the program will include Chopin’s second sonata and Prokofiev’s seventh sonata, which is already a handful or two, but Daneshpour is up for the challenge.

FARTHER AFIELD:
Our favorite American summer opera destination, Santa Fe Opera, has quite a season on offer this year, on which we will have a full report in early August. Yes, there is Strauss -- Salome, with David Robertson conducting Alex Penda in the title role -- and Mozart's La finta giardiniera, starring Heidi Stober and Susanna Phillips. In the new opera slot, we have the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain, and for the more traditionally minded, Verdi's Rigoletto, starring Bryan Hymel and Georgia Jarman, and Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment, with Speranza Scappucci conducting.

A trip to Glimmerglass could be in order this year, with productions of Verdi's Macbeth (starring Eric Owens, Soloman Howard, and Melody Moore) and Vivaldi's Cato in Utica (with Opera Lafayette's Ryan Brown conducting), although the latter does not seem likely to be in the class of the staging of Lully's Armide we saw there in 2012. Then again, it seems a shame to make the long trip to Cooperstown only for two operas.

It is sad that Seattle Opera is not presenting its Ring cycle again this summer, but the cast in their production of Verdi's Nabucco (August 8 to 22) -- Mary Elizabeth Williams, Jamie Barton, and Russell Thomas -- might make it worth your while.

This could be the year for a trip to Bard Summerscape, which is presenting a rare production of Ethel Smythe's opera The Wreckers (July 24 and 26, August 2). In August, the Tanglewood Festival is offering some interesting concerts, including an all-star performance of Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand, with Andris Nelsons conducting Erin Wall, Christine Goerke, Klaus Florian Voigt, and Matthias Goerne (August 8), and some Italian opera excerpts with soprano Kristine Opolais (August 15).

See the complete calendar after the jump.

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C Major Is C Major Is C Major?

H. Vieuxtemps, Cello Concertos, A. Gerhardt, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, J. Caballé-Domenech (Hyperion, 2015) U. Chin, Cello Concerto, A. Gerhardt, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, M.-W. Chung (DG, 2014)

It was a June evening, which justified dressing down for an orchestra concert. Happily, there was no musical equivalent of casual attire on the fine program from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra led by Christoph König on Saturday night in the Music Center at Strathmore. The imposing but young German conductor, who debuted with the BSO in 2013, paired two symphonies that end, as he pointed out in brief comments at the concert's opening, in C major: Sibelius's seventh and Beethoven's fifth. The effect of the same tonal area could not be more different: Sibelius has the orchestra arrive reluctantly at the key, with the violins straining to resolve the leading tone to the tonic, while Beethoven hammers the resolution of dominant to tonic chords triumphantly.

Sibelius's final symphony, last heard from the National Symphony Orchestra in 2013 (although they played it better under Vladimir Ashkenazy in 2008), is in some ways more like a tone poem than a symphony, with themes that are transformed slowly over time, a sort of exercise in nostalgia and remembering. König spoke with enthusiasm about the piece, as if he had to defend it, and he elicited a strong performance from the musicians, especially in the undulating opening slow section, churning with molten but hidden heat. The faster parts did not perhaps quite hold together across the ensemble as they should, but that calming trombone theme, which Sibelius at one point marked with the name of his wife ("Aino"), was given room to soar, especially effective at the ecstatic build-up to its last appearances. If you have ever used the Sibelius music notation software, that program used to open with a little swirling bit of music, which comes from the first minutes of this symphony, always bringing a smile to my face when I hear the piece performed live.

Beethoven's fifth symphony requires a special interpretation to stand out, something unexpected like that heard from Mario Venzago in 2011. König's ideas were forceful, seemingly influenced by historically informed performance practice, so that the whole symphony was taken at no-nonsense tempi with crisp articulations and little distortion of the pace, even in the slow movement. As in the Sibelius, this created some ensemble tensions and lack of cohesion in the faster spots, in particular in the third and fourth movements, which König elided together with almost no modification of the tempo, taking his lead from Beethoven's ingenious blending of the scherzo and finale. When the scherzo returns later, there was almost the impression of the orchestra remarking, "Oh, yeah, we forgot to finish the scherzo!" As compelling as it was in some ways, the tempo demands in the finale had breathless results, and more than one musician could be seen shaking his or head about the unrelenting speed König imposed.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, A well-structured program from BSO, Konig, Gerhardt (Baltimore Sun, June 6)

In between the two symphonies came the welcome return of Alban Gerhardt to the area, as soloist in Shostakovich's first cello concerto, last heard from Sol Gabetta with the NSO in 2013. The German cellist played with the NSO in 2008 and 2006, and he was last with the BSO even longer ago. He has grown into this obsessive, disturbing work, an impressive performance that turned aside my initial wishes that Gerhardt would have brought one of the lesser-heard works, by Henri Vieuxtemps or Unsuk Chin, that he has recorded recently. Gerhardt's consistent and manic sound high on the A string was savagely single-minded in the opening movement but also soft and ardent in the slow movement. At the end of the second movement, one could have used a bit more heart-searing tone, à la Slava, and the double-stop section of the cadenza was a little off, but the ghostly harmonics, in duet with the celesta, were haunting. Gerhardt did have a tendency to rush and elide some of the more complicated passages, but König's perceptive ear and clean stick technique quickly put the train back on the rails.

Ionarts extends thanks to the professionals who are stepping down from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, recognized at this concert: librarian Mary Plaine, principal clarinetist Steven Barta and assistant principal clarinetist Christopher Wolfe, and cellist Paula Skolnik-Childress. Critics are paid to gripe, but the devotion of these talented people to the folly that is classical music receives only our admiration.

Perchance to Stream: D-Day Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio and online video from the week gone by. After clicking to an audio or video stream, you may need to press the "Play" button to start the broadcast. Some of these streams become unavailable after a few days.

• Watch Les Arts Florissants and William Christie perform Rameau's Les Paladins, in a staging by José Montalvo, recorded at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2004. [ARTE]


• You can watch Laurent Pelly's famous staging of Rameau's Platée, featuring Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre--Grenoble, recorded at the Opéra National de Paris in 2002. [ARTE]


• Danielle de Niese stars in Andrei Serban's staging of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes, with William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants, recorded at the Opéra National de Paris in 2004. [ARTE]


• From the Opéra Royal de Versailles, listen to a rare performance of Uthal, a one-act opéra-comique by Etienne-Nicolas Méhul from 1806. [France Musique]


• A true rarity, a performance of Carl Nielsen's opera Saul und David, conducted by Michael Schönwandt last month at the Danish Royal Opera in Copenhagen. [ORF]


• Listen to a performance of Rossini's La Cenerentola from the Opéra de Rennes, conducted by Darell Ang and starring José Maria Lo Monaco as Angelina. [France Musique]


• From Baden-Baden, Ekaterina Siurina and Elina Garança star in a performance of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, recorded last November. [Radio Clásica]


• Watch a production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera from Brussels, with a cast including Marie-Nicole Lemieux. [De Munt]


• The Orchestre National de France opens the Festival de Saint-Denis with Schumann's oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri, conducted by Jérémie Rhorer and starring Marita Solberg and Karine Deshayes. [France Musique]


• Musicians from the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and the Maîtrise de Radio France perform music by Charpentier and Hersant in the Eglise Saint-Sépulcre at the Festival des Chœurs et Voix d'Abbeville. [France Musique]


• Christopher Moulds leads Concentus Musicus Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor in a performance of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, recorded last month at the Internationalen Barocktage Stift Melk. [ORF]


• Another performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt, by David Bates and La Nuova Music, recorded in Salisbury Cathedral. [BBC3]


• Beethoven's Missa Solemnis performed by the Hallé Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Mark Elder. [BBC3]


• Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Sibelius's Lemminkäinen-Suite, Tchaikovsky's violin concerto (with Nikolaj Znaider as soloist), and Nielsen's fourth symphony. [ORF | Part 2]


• Listen to symphonies by Schubert, Mozart, and Haydn performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, under Mariss Jansons. [RTBF]


• Simon Rattle conducts music of Haydn and Claude Vivier with the Vienna Philharmonic, recorded last month at the Wiener Konzerthaus. [ORF]


• Music by Liszt, Franck, and Michael Berkeley performed by pianist Angela Hewitt, the Cremona Quartet, and bass-baritone Gerald Finley, recorded at the Wigmore Hall in London. [BBC3]


• A new program by Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI, inspired by the travel journal of Ibn Battuta, who wandered the world in the 14th century. [France Musique]


• Watch several concerts from the Palazzetto Bru Zane Festival in Paris. [Medici.tv]


• Jeffrey Skidmore conducts Ex Cathedra and soloists in a performance of Rachmaninoff's Vespers, recorded at Southwell Minster. [BBC3]


• Listen to a recital by pianist Marc-André Hamelin, with music by John Field, Liszt, and Schubert. [RTBF]


• From Cardiff, Thomas Sondergard conducts the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in Satyricon by B Tommy Anderson, and Mahler's 2nd Symphony with soloists Susan Gritton and Jennifer Johnston. [BBC3]


• An excellent program from Cornelius Meister and the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, with symphonies by Haydn (no. 103) and Sibelius (no. 3), plus Olivier Latry as soloist in Poulenc's organ concerto. [ORF | Part 2]


• Flutist Emmanuel Pahud and pianist Eric Le Sage perform music by Poulenc, Martinu, Dutilleux, Prokofiev, and Fauré. [RTBF]


• Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Rotterdam Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony, recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. [France Musique]


• Nielsen's second symphony and Brahms's fourth, conducted by Fabio Luisi with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, recorded last December in Copenhagen. [ORF]


• Il Giardino Armonico performs Bach's setting of Psalm 51, recorded at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and Concerto Italiano performs sacred music by Vivaldi at La Chapelle Royale de Versailles, both recorded in 2011. [France Musique]


• Ton Koopman leads the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in music by Handel, Bach, and Haydn. [France Musique]


• Music by Bruno Mantovani and other contemporary composers performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. [France Musique]


• Have another listen to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Dolora Zajick. [ABC Classic]

Ionarts-at-Large: Countryside Chamber Music—Daniel Grimwood in Schwabach

The old stables of the medieval town of Schwabach—that famed gold leaf production center of the world—make for a very decent make-shift concert venue with a little regular series of classical music to which the locals—some more, some less, most very enthusiastically—allow themselves to be goaded.

Beneath the 450-some year old beams of the half-timbered house, which houses town council meetings when not filled with the gifts of Euterpe (that’s the muse of song, for those whose parents tried to save on their education), pianist Daniel Grimwood* and Nazrin Rashidova performed a mother’s day concert in which they dragged the Schwabachers sneakily from the classical period (Mozart) to the 20^th century (Poulenc) by way of Beethoven, Fauré, and Moritz Moszkowski.

In Schwabach (40.000 souls, give or take a few), Daniel Grimwood – unknown the world over as a pianist – is a minor star, having played himself into the hearts of the good burghers by giving memorable concerts of the town’s tenuous musical claim to fame: Adolf von Henselt.

W.A.Mozart, Sonataw f.Fortepiano & Violin K296, 379 & 454 , P.Müllejans, K.Bezuidenhout Harmonia Mundi

The two started out with Mozart, and awkwardly so—a little anxious, a case of too much, and sounding like late Beethoven in gesture—but were quickly at home in the more lyrical bits of Sonata K.454. Still, it was a lesson in why Mozart should not be the warm-up of any recital, with any instrument or assortment of instruments. Mozart is tricky, of course; you don’t want timid Dresden-china tip-toeing, but it also better not sound like Mussolini’s architecture looked. In this case, a good deal of relaxed, liberated, jovial air would have done much to (further) improve the listener’s Mozart-enjoyment and to bring out more of the subtle humor and graceful touch.

The work is officially titled a sonata for pianoforte and violin, in that order, and Grimwood made no pretense of letting this be a showpiece for the violin. Nazrin Rashidova, meanwhile, is not a violinist who needs to fear an independent-minded, volume-lusty pianist: She’s got a sometimes piercing, sometimes feisty, certainly ambitious tone that would dominate many a more timid ivory-artist.

To indulge in simply throwing adjectives at the reader, however well considered a bunch of adjectives they are, is a disgraceful habit. It’s bad writing and makes for even worse reading. Take this less a sign of awareness on my part than a warning: Brace yourself, because here comes

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Briefly Noted: Haydn 2032

Haydn, Symphonies, Vol. 2 (nos. 22, 46, 47), Il Giardino Armonico, G. Antonini (released on June 30, 2015) ALPHA671 | 75'18" Vol. 1 (1, 39, 49) (2014) ALPHA670 | 70'52"

Any good recording of Joseph Haydn's symphonies is welcome at Ionarts, where the Austrian composer's music is a matter of faith. The 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, in 2009, brought a number of new contenders to our ears, by Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburger Barockorchester, and Bruno Weil and Tafelmusik (in re-release). Last year the Alpha label and the Joseph Haydn Stiftung Basel inaugurated the Haydn 2032 project, for which Giovanni Antonini will record all of Haydn's 107 symphonies, divided between his period-instrument ensemble Il Giardino Armonico and the Kammerorchester Basel, in time for the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth, in 2032.

Antonini worked with the former group on the first two releases in the series, and it puts its crisp and lightly balanced sound to excellent effect in these relatively early symphonies. Limited numbers of strings are well matched to the sounds of 2-key oboes, 4-key English horns, one-key flute (played by Antonini himself), natural horns, and harpsichord (for most of the early symphonies), reflecting the size of the orchestra Haydn led while in the employ of the Esterházy family, generally somewhere between one and two dozen players. Of the six Haydn symphonies recorded so far, scholar H. C. Robbins Landon, whose critical editions remain the gold standard, advised that harpsichord was implied or required in nos. 1, 22, 39, and 49, and omitted in nos. 46 or 47. Antonini follows Robbins Landon only in the case of no. 1, leaving out the instrument in no. 22, perhaps because the harpsichord would distract from the odd, inspired dialogue of horn and English horn in the first movement, as well as nos. 39 and 49.

In an unusual but value-enhancing way Antonini has included, on each disc of three symphonies each so far, a less-known work by one of Haydn's contemporaries: on the first disc, Gluck's ballet music for Don Juan, last heard from Opera Lafayette in 2008; on the second, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Sinfonia in F Major, Fk. 67. Both of these pieces are well worth hearing, and Antonini situates them, in extensive booklet notes (in booklets, it must be said, already very thick with lots of seemingly unrelated photographs), as foils for and influences on Haydn's symphonies. By the end of the series, this combination should leave the listener with not only a better understanding of Haydn's symphonies, but also a broader context for them in the history of 18th-century music.