The latest CD from the Berlin Philharmonic is actually two CDs: a set offering music of Haydn. In his liner notes, the music director, Sir Simon Rattle, says, “It may seem strange to suggest this, with an important anniversary year so close, but I have always felt that Haydn is our greatest neglected composer.”

Oh, dear: Another anniversary year? Yes: Haydn died in 1809. And all of my life, I’ve heard that Haydn is our greatest neglected composer, or our most underrated composer. I bet you have, too. And since everyone says it — how underrated can Haydn be?

In any case, he is a great composer, indeed, and the Berliners give us five of his symphonies. They were recorded in February of this year.

The opening symphony – the Symphony No. 88 in G – may be taken as representative of the set. Under Sir Simon, the first movement is spacious, generous, unhurried. It’s also a little rich, but not overly rich. There’s a little graininess in the famously elegant Berlin sound, and it’s not unpleasant. The playing is not super-crisp, with some attacks, particularly, a little ungainly. But, in all, this is good, sensible Haydn.

The second movement, Largo, is quite fine — first shapely and inviting, and then grand (and still inviting). The Menuetto is fresh and swinging, with its Trio appropriately rustic — but not cornily or insultingly so. And the last movement is burbling, exciting — maybe a little mischievous.

What will the “period police” — the guardians and enforcers of musical “originalism” — think of these performances? They will find the tempos a little slow, and find other fault as well, no doubt. But Sir Simon and his orchestra are musical, as Haydn was, and is. Above, I mentioned mischief. And one of the symphonies in this set is the Symphony No. 90 in C, the one whose last movement has a false ending — an “ending” that we hear twice. Haydn loved his jokes; this is a good one. Two seasons ago, Alan Gilbert, guest-conducting the New York Philharmonic, enjoyed this joke very much. Whether his audience enjoyed it equally, I’m not sure.

But hang on: The maestro will not take over our local orchestra until 2009. It’s too early to kvetch about the Gilbert era — isn’t it?

In his liner notes, Sir Simon calls the audience reaction to the false ending “part and parcel of the music, almost an organic necessity.” This is a shrewd point. Just for experimentation, and fun, the record label — EMI Classics — offers two versions of the last movement: one with the audience reaction left in. (That reaction is first applause, and then laughter, when people realize Haydn has had them on.) And the next track has the reaction cut out. The first is better.

Sir Simon adds that, if Haydn were writing symphonies today, he’d certainly write something with a cell phone in the instrumentation. Another shrewd point.

I should note, too, that Sir Simon conducts the last movement of the Symphony No. 90 both stringently and playfully. That is exactly the right combination. Despite its mischief and whimsy, this movement is not a marshmallow — it needs its stringency. A final word on this set: There are those five symphonies, yes, but something of a bonus work, too — Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante in B flat for violin, cello, oboe, and bassoon. This is not a work we hear every day; and it does not leave Mozart’s famous Sinfonia concertante — for violin and viola — in the dust. But it’s good to have it.

Where Haydn symphonies are concerned, you cannot do better than the recordings of the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by George Szell (1897–1970). You can find them, abundantly, on Sony Classics. You cannot do better … unless you heard Szell live, of course. Some of us missed out there.