I have the entire Decca Haydn set, 115 records in all. They consists of the Haydn Symphonies with Dorati, the Haydn Piano Sonatas with John McCabe, and the complete Haydn String Quartets with the Aolian String Quartet. I believe that the String Quartets and the Piano Sonatas were the very first complete records and the Symphonies were the first from a major label. Decca released the set first in Gt. Britain with the catalog numbers beginning with the letters HDN at bargain prices. The symphonies were recorded by 1969-72. I picked them up fairly quickly at a cheap price in London in the late '90's. I had previously bought the London Stereo Treasury set from local US dealers (I agree they are a bargain and quite good sounding, the Decca labelled records are a little better). Make sure you don't buy the yellow labeled US pressings, but the orange and silver (better) or orange and black British pressings. I still see the Decca pressings available from British dealers at bargain prices. Eventually they were released as CD's which I have not heard.
A quick story from my Decca book, partly told to me by John Dunkerley, who engineered several of the albums - along with Kenneth 'Wilkie' Wilkinson, Colin Moorfoot and Stanley Goodall. Hungarian born conductor Antai Dorati was known as a great trainer of orchestras. He took the Philharmonia Hungarica, made of musicians who were refugees from then communist Hungary. For the project, most musicians had never played most of the Haydn symphonies, perhaps 10 or 15 of the 102 are in the standard repertoire. So he would teach the musicians the symphony at the rehearsals at the beginning of the recording sessions and then record the symphonies. Quote from the book.
"Recording took place in St. Bonifatius Kirche in Marl, Germany, a church whose priest was said to like both his drink and his housekeeper. The orchestra, famous for its protracted and heated internal arguments, one day lost track of Dorati during such an argument. Finally Decca engineers Stanley Goodall and Colin Moorfoot found Dorati drinking schnapps with the priest. " Another quote: "In his Haydn symphonies, a two-record appendix of alternative movements includes a minuet Dorati wrote in the style of Haydn. He initially claimed it was a recently-discovered piece, but latter admitted he had composed it himself. The theme used the notes D-E-C-C-A."
Larry
PS. If you click on the Acoustic Sounds link, you will see several of the albums in their London pressings. You can see that Chad doesn't charge the lowest prices in town. I bought the Decca pressings for much less, and have seen the complete box sets of the London pressings used but typically pristine for about $1 or so a record.
