Event

Haydn's The Seasons

Haydn was led to write The Seasons by the great success of his previous oratorio The Creation, which had become very popular and was being performed all over Europe. The piece is divided into four parts, corresponding to Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, and is filled with "tone-painting", a plowman whistles as he works (in fact, he whistles the well-known theme from Haydn's own "Surprise" Symphony), a bird shot by a hunter falls from the sky, there is a sunrise (evoking the one in The Creation), and so on. Among the more rousing choruses are a hunting song with horn calls, a wine celebration with dancing peasants, a loud thunderstorm, and a stirring "ode to toil". Haydn remarked that while he had been industrious his whole life long, this was the first occasion he had ever been asked to write a chorus in praise of industry. Some especially lyrical passages are the choral prayer for a bountiful harvest, the gentle nightfall that follows the storm, and Hanne's cavatina on Winter.