Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons)

Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons)

Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons)
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CD Details

Performer: Stephan MacLeod
Composer: Franz Joseph Haydn
Conductor: Morten Schuldt-Jensen
Orchestra: Leipziger Kammerorchester
Performer: Sibylla Rubens
Performer: Andreas Karasiak
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-03-21
Music Label: Naxos
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. No.1: Introduction: The Overture Paints The Passage Of The Winter To The Spring. Recitative: See, How Sad, Gloomy Winter Fly's
  2. No.2-Chorus: Come, Gentle Spring!
  3. No.3-Recitative: Now In His Course The Sun
  4. No.4-Aria: With Eagerness The Husbandman
  5. No.5-Recitative: The Countryman Has Done His Due
  6. No.6-Soloists And Chorus: Prayer. Be Now Gracious, O Kind Heaven
  7. No.7-Recitative: Our Humble Pray'rs Are Heard
  8. No.8-Trio And Chorus: Song Of Joy, With An Alternating Chorus Of Girls And Lads. O What Num'rous Charms Unfolding
  9. No.9-Solists And Chorus: Endless God, Mighty God, Merciful God
  10. No.10-Recitative: The Overture Paints The Dawn Of Day. Her Face In Dewy Veil Conceal'd
  11. No.11-Aria: The Ready Swain In Gath'ring Now. Recitative: With Rosy Steps Young Day Pours In
  12. No.12-Soloists And Chorus: The Sun Ascends, He Mounts
  13. No.13-Recitative: Now Comes In Swarms The Rustic Youth
  14. No.14-Recitative: 'Tis Noon, And Vertical The Sun
  15. No.15-Cavatina: Distressfull Nature Fainting Sinks
  16. No.16-Recitative: O Welcome Now, Ye Shady Groves
  17. No.17-Aria: O What Comfort To The Senses
  18. No.18-Recitative: Behold! On Yonder Edge Of Mountains High
  19. No.19-Chorus: Oh! The Tempest Comes O'er Head
  20. No.20-Soloists And Chorus: The Cloudy Welkin Now Clears Up
Music CD 2
  1. No.21: Overture: The Overture Indicates The Husbandman's Satisfaction At The Abundant Harvest. Recitative: What By Various Blossoms Fair Spring
  2. No.22-Recitative: Th' Abundant Harvest Now He Brings
  3. No.23-Terzetto And Chorus: So Nature Ever Kind Repays
  4. No.24-Recitative: Behold, How To The Hazelbank
  5. No.25-Duet: Ye Ladies Fine And Fair! O Come
  6. No.26-Recitative: Now On The Stripped Fields Appear
  7. No.27-Aria: Behold The Wide Extended Meads
  8. No.28-Recitative: Here Closed Rings Compel The Timid Hares
  9. No.29-Chorus: Hear, Hear the Clank And The Noise
  10. No.30-Recitative: The Vineyard Now In Clusters Bright
  11. No.31-Chorus: Heyday, Heyday! The Liquor Flows
  12. No.32-Overture: The Overture Paints The Thick Fogs At The Beginning Of Winter.
  13. No.33-Recitative: Now Sinks The Pale Declining Year
  14. No.34-Cavatina: Light And Life In Sadness Languish
  15. No.35-Recitative: By Frost Cemented Stands The Lake
  16. No.36-Aria: Here Stands The Wand'rer Now
  17. No.37-Recitative: As He Draws Nigh, Soon To His Ears
  18. No.38-Solists And Chorus: Set The Wheel Agoing, Make It Snore
  19. No.39-Recitative: Th' Evening Task Performed Is
  20. No.40-Song And Chorus: An Honest Country-Girl There Was
  21. No.41-Recitative: Now From The Livid East
  22. No.42-Aria: Behold, O Weak And Foolish Man. No.43-Recitative: Alone She Stays! Alone She Too
  23. No.44-Soloists And Double Chorus: Then Comes The Great And Glorious Morn

Music reviews of Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons)

Music Review: Haydn's "The Seasons" on Naxos
Rating: 5 Stars

Haydn composed his oratorios "The Creation" and "The Seasons" late in life under the great influence of Handel following his trips to London in the 1790s. Haydn was at the height of his powers with his 104 symphonies already behind him.

Last year Naxos released an outstanding version of "The Creation" with Andreas Sperring conducting the Capella Augustina. Naxos has followed-up this release with an equally impressive performance of "The Seasons" in which Morten Schuldt-Jensen conducts the Leipziger Kammerorchester. These two recordings offer fresh, budget-priced, and convincing readings of two choral masterworks. Both oratorios are performed on modern instruments, but with great attention to performance practices in Haydn's day. I was fortunate to hear this recording at an appropriate time -- over the first lovely spring weekend of the year, with Haydn's opening movement celebrating the passing of winter and the coming of spring.

The Seasons has a much more pastoral, bucolic cast than its companion. The liberetto was composed by Gottfried von Swieten based upon a poem by James Thompson. It is performed in German on this CD. (The English version is equally authentic.) The work cost Haydn a great deal of pain and time, much of which was due to his dislike of the libretto and to von Swieten's gratuitous kibbitzing on the score. The work includes three prominent solo roles for rustic characters named Hanne, Lukas, and Simon, performed here by Sibylla Ruhens, soprano, Andreas Karasiak, tenor, and Stephan MacLeod, bass. I found Ms. Ruhens particularly engaging.

The Seasons shows a great variety of musical styles, including large orchestral overtures for each of the four movements, solos, ensembles, and large choruses. The work looks back to Handel, to Mozart's Magic Flute in some places, and to Haydn himself in an aria from "Spring" in which he quotes his own already proverbial theme from the "Surprise" symphony. In its depiction of the storm in "Summer" the oratorio looks forward to Beethoven and in some of its rustic tone-paintings, it looks forward still further to the romantics.

There are some lovely, meditative sections in this work, including Hanne's cavatina "Light and Life in Sadness Languish" from "Winter" and Simon's aria "Behold the Weak and Foolish man" from "Winter" which analogizes the passing of the seasons to the transience of human life. The pastorale choruses include the opening "Come Gentle Spring" from "Spring." Many of the works include extensive solo passages for winds, with the horns figuring prominently in several hunting pieces. Haydn's orchestral writing, particularly in the introductions to "Spring" and "Winter" show, as does the introduction to "The Creation" the mastery he had developed from years of symphonic composition. But the many rousing choruses and ensembles pieces are the highlight of "The Seasons" as Haydn develops his material forcefully and fugally. The work's concluding double chorus ""There comes the great and glorious man" with its ending "Amen!" gets a stunning reading here.

These two budget-priced recordings of "The Seasons" and "The Creation" offer new, exciting readings of much-loved, often-recorded music. They offer a great opportunity for the new listener to get to know these great works of Haydn. They will appeal as well to those who have their own cherished versions of these venerable scores.

Robin Friedman

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