CD-Charts Position 9
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. Haydn: The Seasons
Search: Prayer
from: Philips
Release Date November 15, 1999
Haydn's 'oratorio' (or whatever) The Seasons received its first performance in 1801, the 70th year of the composer's life. He was at the very height of his creative powers, and his inspiration had received a new jolt, as Beethoven's and Schubert's were later to do, through his exposure to Handel. He was not new to oratorio, indeed his Creation seems to me the only later work of that name that can be mentioned in the same breath as Handel's. He was also not unduly thrilled with the libretto of The Seasons, which comes in English and German versions but which he characterised tersely as 'franzoesischer Quark' (frenchified rubbish). For my own part, it's all one to me whether The Seasons counts as oratorio or not. For me it is an unqualified masterpiece, ... Read More:
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