The Seasons was Haydn's followup to his successful The Creation. In four parts, each musically depicting a season, it offers plentiful opportunities for all the participants to shine and conductor Jacobs, his splendid orch... more »estra and chorus, and three outstanding soloists deliver a committed performance that's a delight from the first note to the last. Jacobs is known for his gutsy interpretations and this set is no exception; tempos are lively, the few passages of second-drawer Haydn (still preferable to most composer's top-drawer stuff) retain interest, and the period orchestra delivers crisp, lively playing. Haydn's genius transforms many genre scenes: a summer storm, hunting episodes, daybreak, the gloomy winter fog, peasant dances, and imitations of nature, like frog croaks that will bring a smile to your face. Special kudos for the RIAS singers, who bring a finely blended sound and colorful word painting to the choral numbers. Güra's mellifluous tenor makes his solos a joy, but Petersen's light soprano and Henschel's firm baritone are as effective. This is The Seasons to get if you're having only one. --Dan Davis« less
The Seasons was Haydn's followup to his successful The Creation. In four parts, each musically depicting a season, it offers plentiful opportunities for all the participants to shine and conductor Jacobs, his splendid orchestra and chorus, and three outstanding soloists deliver a committed performance that's a delight from the first note to the last. Jacobs is known for his gutsy interpretations and this set is no exception; tempos are lively, the few passages of second-drawer Haydn (still preferable to most composer's top-drawer stuff) retain interest, and the period orchestra delivers crisp, lively playing. Haydn's genius transforms many genre scenes: a summer storm, hunting episodes, daybreak, the gloomy winter fog, peasant dances, and imitations of nature, like frog croaks that will bring a smile to your face. Special kudos for the RIAS singers, who bring a finely blended sound and colorful word painting to the choral numbers. Güra's mellifluous tenor makes his solos a joy, but Petersen's light soprano and Henschel's firm baritone are as effective. This is The Seasons to get if you're having only one. --Dan Davis
CD Reviews
A great work reassessed
A music lover | Fremont, CA | 02/28/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I really can't add any more detail then the other reviewer, although I was slightly less bothered by the soprano and didn't feel that she marred my overall appreciation of the recording. I would say that a better soprano would have escalated this performance into the stratosphere. This performance grabbed my attention from the beginning and is the best performance on disc for ensuring that Haydn's weaker sections are put forth in the best possible light, minimizing those periods where one's attention can wander. Everything else the other reviewer said holds true for me. This is my vote for the most outstanding classical release of 2004."
(Almost) perfect...
Buranun | USA, Connecticut | 10/06/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This new recording of "The Seasons" seems to be getting a lot of good press and while it is certainly worth all the praise, it doesn't - in my view - represent such a bold step forward compared to, say the Gardiner from 1992 (Archiv), to be treated as a complete novelty. To be sure, Jacobs does a great job reminding his fans (I am certainly one of them) about this often underappreciated oratorio by Papa Haydn (if there is a conductor today who can put a piece of music on the map, it certainly is Jacobs) but before Jacobs there was Gardiner and a few others, including Karajan and Boehm.
I love this new recording more than the initial tone of my review may suggest but I am not completely happy with it. The orchestral playing is absolutely marvellous - colourful and imaginative, the choir sings gloriously, the soloists are first rate and yet it is among them that I find the weakest link of this recording which is surprising considering that Jacobs has a great ear for voices.
Both men - Henschel and Guera - are splendid, delivering the arias and recitativi with great intelligence and musicality (listen to Guera's "In grauen Schleier rueckt heran", CD 1/10 or the cavatina "Dem Druck erlieget die Natur"). The soprano, however, is only a little more than adequate, at least to my ears. I appreciate her great care for the text but I'd rather hear the text painted with the voice than simply "delivered". It is my personal impression for I am rather tired of white, "farblos" voices and Marlis Petersen's voice is just like that: strong, pure but without much colour in it. To think what Jacobs's star Dorothea Roeschmann would have done with this music only aggravates the pain - where was she!? Even Barbara Bonney (Gardiner), in spite of her not always perfect German diction, sung this music with more charm and dedication. Don't get me wrong - Petersen is fine but her singing isn't inspired and a recording like this deserves better. The splendor of the orchestral playing and the contribution of the choir and two male soloists certainly make it unforgettable.
I am waiting impatienly for Jacobs's "Creation" - a few years ago he confessed that recording of this great oratorio with a huge choir was his greatest dream. Let's hope he'll make it come true very soon. But with a different soprano!"
Good performance of Haydn
Critic at large | East Coast USA | 09/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have always loved Haydn's masses and chamber music, as an amateur performer, listener and student of composition. However, performances of his symphonies have frequently left me somewhat indifferent. Important works, yes, and individually some fine performances by various artists, but not in the same class for me as those of Mozart or Beethoven.
I am a big fan of Baroque music and own multiple recordings of the major works of this era, especially the oratorios of Handel and the Passions and cantatas of Bach and his forerunners. I have often wondered what an HIP performance of a Haydn oratorio would sound like. I own several sets of his symphonies done HIP and it has at least rekindled my interest in those works.
So, when I saw that Rene Jacobs had a hand in this recording I decided to see what a Haydn oratorio with an HIP slant would sound like. Would it come across as his symphonies in many hands, nice but not really packed with emotion? Or would it knock my socks off? Well, I am wearing no socks!
The performers are all first rate and the engineering is good too. The performance has a crisp feel to it. The male voices are especially outstanding. The choral and orchestral work here are both first rate.
Rene Jacobs certainly understands Baroque opera, so that is why I think he does such a great job here. He knows how to treat the oratorio as vocal music that tells a story. Jacobs knows how to deliver performances that convey excitement, but don't go "over the top" and turn to choral mush.
If you want to approach this less often performed classical era oratorio under the tutelage of a master of Baroque vocal music, this is your recording. Buy it!"
A Fresh "Listen" to a Classic Work
M. C. Passarella | Lawrenceville, GA | 12/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The one disclaimer I will make before I begin this review--and it's an important one--is that I have not hear John Elliot Gardiner's "The Seasons," which should be comparable to Rene Jacobs's in many ways. That said, I will proceed to opine that if you know just about any modern-instruments version of this choral-music gem--well, you don't really know the work. Haydn was supposed to say in his latter years that he had just learned how to use the wind instruments and now, doggone it (I'm paraphrasing) "I must leave this world." Jacobs will instantly show you what Haydn meant. This "Seasons" is chock-full of especially piquant utterances from the winds, especially oboe and bassoons (including contrabassoon), which Haydn cleverly uses to portray birds, beasts, thunderstorms, bagpipes: never has the ingenuity and downright beauty of Haydn's orchestral mastery been clearer. That goes for strings and brass as well. Flying insects, country fiddles, hunting horns: Haydn may simply be mimicking the coloristic use of instruments he learned from hearing works like "Israel in Egypt" while in London, but how wonderfully he adapts these sounds to an expanded late-eighteenth-century orchestra.
From the very beginning, Jacobs gives notice that the orchestra will have a special prominence in this performance. The orchestral introduction to the first section, "Spring,' depicts the raging winter winds. Jacobs's orchestra does so with a bounding energy that almost requires Baritone Dietrich Henschel to shout his first entry. But he does not. In fact, he gives an elegant, far-from-shouted performance throughout and provides the rock-steady low-voice underpinning that Haydn requires. I'm just as happy with Tenor Werner Gura, who has a tender, Wunderlich-style delivery that's exactly right for farm-boy Lucas. Others have expressed dissatisfaction with Marlis Petersen. It's true that compared to, say, Eugen Jochum's unforgettable Gundula Janowitz, Petersen is a non-starter. But in ensemble work, at least, she does quite well enough--especially with Jacobs shaping numbers such as "Ihr Schonen aus der Stadt" so effectively, with such wonderful cumulative force. The RIAS Chamber Chorus is simply outstanding; just sample the storm chorus or, even better the wine-celebration chorus "Juhe! Der Wein ist Da."
Harmonia Mundi provides rich, resonant, bigger-than-life sound that captures both the beauty and the occasional thrilling rawness of that excellent period orchestra. How else can you capture a summer thundershower? Or a barn dance?"
WONDERFUL HAYDN
GEORGE RANNIE | DENVER, COLORADO United States | 02/03/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Franz Joseph Haydn happens to be one of my very favorite composers. His oratorios and masses are indeed very special. "The Seasons" finds dear Haydn at his very very best. It is a work with splendid vocal and chorus writing along with masterful writing also for the orchestra with all melding together to form a masterpiece that fully exploits the attributes of the Classical period of so-called classical music as well as being a harbinger of the Romantic period of Classical Music to come (especially its descriptive side of music). In this recording, Rene Jacobs and his forces do Haydn proud providing a marvelous performance of this great work.
Playing on "original instruments" Jacobs leads a spirited account of the seasons imparting marvelously the "sounds" of each season from both orchestra and chorus. Never do these "nature recreations" sound weird or laughable as in some recordings that I've heard.
No, Marlis Petersen is no Gundula Janowitz (who is?); however, she does sing very well and is a great contributor to the ensembles which are important to this work. I also enjoyed her solo numbers. Tenor Werner Gura and Baritone Dietrich Henschel gave me considerable pleasure also singing with sweet but powerful (when needed) voices. The chorus is "spot on" singing really rather well-listen to the "Drinking Song" "Juhe! Der Wein ist Da." marvelous! Jacobs certainly imparts wonderfully the vitality and rowdiness along with the tenderness of this work!
I thoroughly enjoyed hearing this work again with this very fine recording--you will too by buying this CD set. (The sound is marvelous too capturing all of the forces masterfully!)
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1