Haydn: Symphonies Volume 33 (25., 42., 65.)

The rarely recorded Symphony No. 25 is an unusual work. Lacking a slow movement, it opens with an Adagio-Allegro followed by a minuet. Symphony No. 42, with its compelling themes and keen sense of dramatic timing, is one of the composer’s finest middle-period symphonies. Wit, invention and originality abound in Symphony No. 65, which is thought to have been conceived as incidental music for one of the many dramatic works performed at Eszterháza.