Haydn - The Seasons
£24.65
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Label: Alia Vox
Cat No: AVSA9964
Format: Hybrid SACD
Number of Discs: 2
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 22nd August 2025
Contents
Artists
Lina Johnson (soprano)Tilman Lichdi (tenor)
Matthias Winckhler (bass-baritone)
La Capella Nacional de Catalunya
Le Concert des Nations
Conductor
Jordi SavallWorks
The Seasons (Die Jahreszeiten), Hob.XXI:3Artists
Lina Johnson (soprano)Tilman Lichdi (tenor)
Matthias Winckhler (bass-baritone)
La Capella Nacional de Catalunya
Le Concert des Nations
Conductor
Jordi SavallAbout
In his new album, Jordi Savall, undisputed master of early music, reveals a new interpretation of Haydn’s Seasons. With an approach that respects tradition while injecting his own unique signature, Savall breathes new life into this masterpiece. His use of period instruments and his acute sense of detail offer a freshness and emotional depth never heard before. At once timeless and innovative, this album immerses the listener in the very essence of nature and the seasons, capturing the beauty and richness of Haydn’s work with a rare intensity. An experience not to be missed.
Sound/Video
Paused
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11. Teil (Der Frühling): 1. Einleitung – Seht, wie der strenge Winter flieht!
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21. Teil (Der Frühling): 2. Komm, holder Lenz!
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31. Teil (Der Frühling): 3a. Vom Widder strahlet jetzt
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41. Teil (Der Frühling): 3b. Schon eilet froh der Akkermann
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51. Teil (Der Frühling): 4a. Der Landmann hat sein Werk vollbracht
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61. Teil (Der Frühling): 4b. Sei uns gnädig, milder Himmel!
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71. Teil (Der Frühling): 5a. Erhört ist unser Flehn!
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81. Teil (Der Frühling): 5b. O wie lieblich ist der Anblick
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91. Teil (Der Frühling): 5c. Ewiger, mächtiger, gütiger Gott
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102. Teil (Der Sommer): 6a. Einleitung – In grauem Schleier rückt heran
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112. Teil (Der Sommer): 6b. Der munt’re Hirt versammelt nun
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122. Teil (Der Sommer): 7. Sie steigt herauf, die Sonne
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132. Teil (Der Sommer): 8a. Nun regt und bewegt sich alles umher
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142. Teil (Der Sommer): 8b. Die Mittagssonne brennet jetzt
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152. Teil (Der Sommer): 8c. Dem Druck erliegt die Natur
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162. Teil (Der Sommer): 9. Willkommen jetzt, o dunkler Hain
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172. Teil (Der Sommer): 10a. Oh seht! Es steiget in der schwülen Luft
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182. Teil (Der Sommer): 10b. Ach! das Ungewitter naht
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192. Teil (Der Sommer): 10c. Die düst’ren Wolken trennen sich
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203. Teil (Der Herbst): 11a. Einleitung – Was durch seine Blüte der Lenz
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213. Teil (Der Herbst): 11b. Den reichen Vorrat führt er nun
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223. Teil (Der Herbst): 12. So Lohnet die Natur den Fleiß
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233. Teil (Der Herbst): 13a. Seht, wie zum Haselbusche dort
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243. Teil (Der Herbst): 13b. Ihr Schönen aus der Stadt, kommt her!
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253. Teil (Der Herbst): 14a. Nun zeiget das entblößte Feld
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263. Teil (Der Herbst): 14b. Seht auf die breiten Wiesen hin!
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273. Teil (Der Herbst): 15a. Hier treibt ein dichter Kreis
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283. Teil (Der Herbst): 15b. Hört! hört das laute Getön
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293. Teil (Der Herbst): 16a. Am Rebenstocke blinket jetzt
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303. Teil (Der Herbst): 16b. Juhhe, juhhe! Der Wein ist da
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314. Teil (Der Winter): 17a. Einleitung – Nun senket sich das blasse Jahr
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324. Teil (Der Winter): 17b. Licht und Leben sind geschwächet
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334. Teil (Der Winter): 18a. Gefesselt steht der breite See
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344. Teil (Der Winter): 18b. Hier steht der Wand’rer nun
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354. Teil (Der Winter): 19a. Sowie er naht, schallt in sein Ohr
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364. Teil (Der Winter): 19b. Knurre, schnurre, knurre!
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374. Teil (Der Winter): 20a. Abgesponnen ist der Flachs
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384. Teil (Der Winter): 20b. Ein Mädchen, das auf Ehre hielt
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394. Teil (Der Winter): 21a. Von dürrem Osten dringt
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404. Teil (Der Winter): 21b. Erblicke hier, betörter Mensch
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414. Teil (Der Winter): 22. Dann bricht der große Morgen an
Europadisc Review
Composed over two years spanning the very dawn of the 19th century, Haydn’s four-part oratorio The Seasons (Die Jahreszeiten) was designed to capitalise on the huge popularity of The Creation. Once again, Haydn’s collaborator was the diplomat, librarian and librettist, Baron Gottfried van Swieten. As with The Creation, the libretto was based on an English-language source, in this case the sprawling, diffuse but highly influential poem The Seasons (1726–1730) by the Scotsman John Thomson (whose other claim to fame is the lyrics of ‘Rule, Britannia!’). In condensing Thomson’s vast work to more manageable proportions, van Swieten drew on other sources as well as his own invention, to create a work in which three soloists – the peasant farmer Simon (bass), his daughter Hanne (soprano) and the village youth Lukas (tenor) – are channels for various musings and scenarios on the character of the four seasons as seen through the perspective of rural life. They interact with the (largely four-part) chorus, and the forces are similar to those of The Creation (the same soloists sang both works).
Even in Haydn’s last years, The Seasons was overshadowed by The Creation, yet in many ways the two works are complementary – the earlier work proceeding from God alone amid chaos to the creation of Man, while The Seasons proceeds from vivid depictions of rural life to a philosophical consideration of Man as he confronts God in the twilight of Winter. (Both Haydn and his close contemporary van Swieten were indeed approaching their final years.) The quality of the libretto has been criticised ever since the work’s first performances, but thanks to Haydn’s music the work achieves a remarkable equilibrium between the popular (including rousing hunting and drinking choruses) and the philosophical, culminating in a great hymn of praise to God for soloists and double chorus.
Like The Creation, The Seasons has been well served on disc, particularly since the advent of historically-informed performances where period instruments add an extra bucolic edginess and fervour to the vigorous music of Haydn’s old age. Gardiner, Jacobs and McCreesh have all made fine recordings, and now Jordi Savall joins their ranks, four years after his splendid account of The Creation. Once again, his performance benefits from the warm, generous acoustic of the Collegiate Church of Sant Vicenç at the Castle of Cardona. The tenor and bass soloists – Tilman Lichdi and Matthias Winckhler – return, this time with the pure-toned soprano Lina Johnson. The choir of the Capella Nacional de Catalunya is just 21 voices strong, yet they lack nothing in presence, and combine vivid projection and clarity of line with a palpable sense of involvement, well-balanced against the instrumentalists of Le Concert des Nations.
The solo vocal work is excellent, Lichdi making a characterful youth, his more reflective passages beautifully shaped and paced, while Winckhler is a benign presence, perhaps less characterful than some, but ideally suited for the ripe wisdom of adulthood. Johnson combines heartfelt human emotion with angelic tones, and her exquisite aria in Summer, ‘Welche Labung für die Sinne’, is one of the performance’s many highlights.
As the work moves via the vibrant pictorialism of Summer and Autumn via the Spinning Song and praise of toil in Winter to the more philosophical elements of the final pages, the strengths of Savall’s performance – just as vivid in its way as René Jacobs’ 2003 on Harmonia Mundi, but with a crucial degree more warmth and expressiveness – become ever more apparent. Aided by some splendidly characterful solo playing, from the thunderous opening timpani thwacks to the clucking of the oboe, ardent solo horn passages, and the raucous sound of the offstage hunt, this account combines pictorial immediacy with a rounded, mature vision of the whole.
At a time when the traditional seasons themselves are in turmoil from the challenges of climate change, the gentle humour and sagacity of Haydn’s late style, anticipating the Romantic Philosophy of Nature, is a welcome tonic, and a timely reminder of a way of life that may be gone forever. No-one who has already heard Savall’s wonderful recording of The Creation will want to be without these Seasons. Unhesitatingly recommended!
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