Haydn: The Seasons (Complete oratorio)

Haydn: The Seasons (Complete oratorio) cover $50.00 Out of Stock
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JOSEF HAYDN
Haydn: The Seasons (Complete oratorio)
Marlis Petersen (soprano), Werner Gura (tenor), Dietrich Henschel (baritone), RIAS-Kammerchor, Freiburger Barockorchester, Rene Jacobs

[ Harmonia Mundi Haydn Edition / 2 CD ]

Release Date: Sunday 1 February 2009

This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.

"The thrilling sound of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Berlin's crack RIAS Chamber Choir make for a life-enhancing experience. The three soloists are superb; the whole set makes you wonder anew at the 67-year-old composer's creativity and imagination."
- Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine (Awards Issue 2004)

Critics' Choice Gramophone Magazine 2004

"This is an ear-opening performance by the conductor of our Record of the Year for 2004, Rene Jacobs. The thrilling sound of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Berlin's crack RIAS Chamber Choir make for a life-enhancing experience. The three soloists are superb; the whole set makes you wonder anew at the 67-year-old composer's creativity and imagination."
- Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine (Awards Issue 2004)

The transition from Winckelmann to Rousseau marked one of the biggest upheavals of thought in the Enlightenment. This dramatic change in style is perfectly captured in Haydn's oratorio, The Seasons, with its decidedly Romantic 'word-painting.' In this music, even though lambs frolic, fish teem and thunder booms, it is the question of Man's place within Nature that is the central issue. By going back to the very first version of The Seasons (with the orchestral introductions played in their entirety), René Jacobs enables us to hear the work as it might have sounded at its premiere in April 1801.

"There is simply one word for Jacobs' musical direction - enchanting."
- The Independent