Das Wiener Philharmonia Trio - Haydn: Divertimentos (String Trios), Vol. 2 (2004)

If your idea of a good time is listening to three superb Viennese musicians hold discourse witty, sentimental, and wise through the medium of five of Haydn's Divertimentos for string trio, this is the disc for you. While not as weighty as his string quartets -- after all, they're for three players not four and are in three movements not four -- Haydn's string trios have a lightness, effortlessness, and blessedness that they often lack. In this, the second volume of Camerata's survey of Haydn's complete Divertimentos for string trio, Das Wiener Philharmonia Trio -- so-called because all three of its players are in the Vienna Philharmonic -- once again performs with all the necessary qualities: humor -- listen to the Scherzo-Presto that opens the E flat major trio -- sentimentality -- listen to the Adagio cantabile that opens the F major trio -- and wisdom -- listen to the elevated nobility of the Adagio that opens the E flat major trio. Camerata's sound is ideally placed between clarity and warmth, between intimacy and ambience, and between illusion and reality. Although not perhaps for listeners who prefer the sublimity of Haydn's strings quartets or the virtuosity of his piano trios, this disc of string trios is perfect as either background or foreground music.