Colin Davis' Haydn "London" Symphonies always have been admired, often praised to the skies, but I have to buck the consensus in this case: it's the orchestra that deserves most of the credit here. It plays magnificently, those famous winds beautifully balanced against the strings, with good presence from trumpets and drums (for a non-period instrument performance). Still, Davis never approaches the dynamism of Bernstein, the quirky originality of Harnoncourt or Brüggen, or the effervescent high spirits of Jochum. Percussion in the "Military" Symphony remains too tame, and some of the finales (the "Clock" and "Drum Roll" especially) impress as efficient rather than exciting, despite lively tempos. It's more a function of accent and timing and the fact that Davis doesn't allow much opportunity for the music's humor to manifest itself (witness the rather lame "surprise" in the eponymous symphony's second movement). Admittedly this is a minority view, and these remastered recordings, sounding better than ever, certainly offer tremendous pleasure on the grounds of the orchestral contribution alone; but as Louise Lasser said to Woody Allen in Bananas, "Something's missing." [7/26/2001]

--David Hurwitz