This is a pleasantly fresh, unpretentious account of Schubert's most engaging symphony: lively in the two outer movements and with an infectious lilt in the 'Minuet' (a scherzo in disguise). Schubert's fondness for what Schumann described as ''heavenly lengths'' is, however, put to the test in the second movement, here hardly con moto and, with the repeat observed, lasting nearly 12 minutes. There are certainly no longeurs in Haydn's La passione, that astonishingly fervent outpouring of his so-called Sturm und Drang period. John Lubbock gives an exceptionally eloquent performance of the slow first movement (without repeats), balanced by dramatic fiery intensity in the second and fourth, both of which are played with repeats (which, because of their relative brevity, they need to make their proper effect). These are separated by a beautifully elegiac account of the Minuet, with its miraculous F major Trio.
The playing of the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square echoes their conductor's innate musicality, even if it does not, perhaps, always match that of some of their more prestigious competitors in sheer finesse. The recording (the Haydn was made in St John's and the Schubert in Rosslyn Hill Chapel) is rich and full, despite an occasional edge to the upper strings which would presumably have made a continuo harpsichord audible if it had been present in the Haydn, which I can only assume was not the case: it does not matter in a performance so committed and, in the best sense, so 'un-authentic' as this is.'