John Halbrooks asks:

>Does anyone care to make recommendations for Haydn's "Paris" symphonies?
>I'm willing to go HIP or otherwise.  Since I can't find a CD of Szell
>conducting these, I'm at sea choosing between Bernstein, Karajan, and
>the HIPsters.

Don't know if Szell ever recorded these either.  However, one of the most
often recommended sets with modern instruments is the Bernstein, and I find
it quite engaging.  Karajan seems too bland in the way he approaches Haydn
for my taste, there's not enough paprika in it.

I've not heard many of the HIP sets, but I have the recordings by Sigiswald
Kuijken and the Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment, and enjoy them
very much.  Surprisingly, my impression is that there isn't a whole lot of
difference in the overall sonorities between Kuijken and Bernstein, though
of course there are interpretive ones.

Either way, you'd win IMO.

Bill H.