Harmonia Mundi: HMC901854

'An exercise for composers and instrumentalists, with no ambition other than to offer a vague pleasure to the ear': one hopes that the author of this judgment pronounced in 1771 went on to temper his remarks when he heard such masterpieces as Haydn’s concerto in D major, with its celebrated 'Hungarian' finale. It is true that in the last years of the Baroque period the genre was somewhat in eclipse: the Classical style was born of a certain facility – which is nonetheless highly entertaining!