Robin Ticciati & SCO - Haydn: Symphonies 31, 70 & 101 - Irish Times

Three distinctive Haydn symphonies, all in the key of D, all given taut, bracing, urgently propelled performances.

Even the famous tick-tocking slow movement from No 101, the Clock, moves at quite a lick, as if Ticciati is keen to emphasise the rigour of time-keeping mechanisms. In No 31, the Hornsignal, there’s woodwind delicacy as well as the brassily-fanfaring quartet of horns, and a parade of well-taken solos for other instruments.

The terse argument of No 70 in D minor serves as a reminder that a reviewer of the premiere of the Clock Symphony wrote, “having found a happy subject, no man knows like Haydn how to produce incessant variety, without once departing from it”.