Customer Reviews

Haydn: The Seasons

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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?

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!

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!)

As I type this, I am about to perform the work in about two hours as a member of the chorus. When I began singing it, I really didn't care for it. It is a difficult piece, at least in my opinion.

This recording really helped me like the piece more than I ever would have before. The natural horns, the intense trombones, the excellent oboist, the soloists (especially the duet near the end of Disc 2, Track 5), and the choir. Jacobs can is very adept at bringing the tender cantabile passages out where appropriate and conducts the ensemble in what I have termed "appropriate brashness" in the sections requiring this.

Finally, the sizzle that I have heard with HIP instrumental ensembles like the Boston Baroque is definetely present, a feeling you cannot come close to accomplishing with a modern orchestra on older pieces, in my opinion.

Love it!

"Siamese fighting fish, fascinating creatures. Brave but on the whole stupid. Yes they're stupid. Except for the occasional one such as we have here who lets the other two fight. While he waits - waits until the survivor is so exhausted that he cannot defend himself, and then like SPECTRE... he strikes!"

"How fascinating!" said the dumpy middle-aged man with the thick glasses and curly hair. He was staring at the fish-tank with his back to the Head of SPECTRE (Sinister Period-Practice Enacted to Counter Traditional Readings Everlastingly).

"Our organization did not arrange for you to transfer from Harmonia Mundi just for your amusement, Number 4," Ernst Hogwood-Blofeld snarled. "As you can see, I am about to inaugurate a little war. In a matter of hours after Deutsche Grammophon and EMI have annihilated each other, we shall see a new power dominating the world of classical music: SPECTRE - and my back-catalogue."

A nearby bust of David Munrow, frozen in marble, greeted this news with impassivity.

"You wanted to see me," Number 4 said edgily.

"Yes, yes, take a seat," Hogwood-Blofeld purred. With great reluctance, the guest obliged. Seconds later, Mister Bigglesworth jumped up on the desk, swishing his tail. "I listened to your Die Jahreszeiten. I wanted to give you some . . . feedback."

Hogwood-Blofeld paused magisterially.

"I like the rushed tempo (I got out the skipping rope in the Introduction to Autumn), the undernourished strings (your violinists sound as if they had been rebuilding the Bridge on the River Kwai in the days before this recording), the eschewal of grandeur (the conclusion to Winter, which is an apotheosis in Karajan's hands, is genuinely underwhelming here) - it's all well done. Compared with our main rival, the Bohm from '66 Haydn: The Seasons, your performance is like a fingernail being scratched against a blackboard. SPECTRE is pleased - mostly."

Hogwood-Blofeld's face reddened.

"Even so, your two male singers are far too plush and luxuriant for period practice. What were you thinking? Why didn't you dig up some anaemic buggers with a pinched tone? There's plenty of them on our books. You are also far too romantic throughout - plenty of traditionalists will enjoy large slabs of this performance, the anaemic strings notwithstanding. The choir too, could be far more nasal."

Number 4 tightened his grip on the armchairs

"But what in the hell happened in the last movement? Did someone change the score? To my ears, it sounds like you're playing Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony. Just listen - listen to this garbage!"

Hogwood-Blofeld pushed a button and the room was filled with the music from CD 2, Track 24 and its first few seconds.

"That a kazoo. You can't fool me. That's a kazoo and I should know. Why did you bring our entire organisation into disrepute?"

Number 4's glasses fogged up from perspiration. An explanation was not forthcoming. He shrank further into his chair.

"And who allowed Donald Duck into the studio during the Introduction to Summer? Goddamit, the score says an oboe, not braised Peking Duck!"

Hogwood-Blofeld's right hand disappeared under the desk.

"I warned you: We do NOT tolerate failure, Number Four. And we don't `do' kazoos in SPECTRE. You know the penalty for failure."

"No - don't do it - please!"

Hogwood-Blofeld paused in thought. With a grimace, his right hand slithered back into view.

"No - you're not fish-food yet. I'm assigning you to the Buxtehude Cantata series. It will desiccate you further, Number 4. If that does not work then we will ship you off to the Schütz Symphoniae Sacrae. This is your last warning."

Creo que Jacobs entendio perfectamente lo que quizo describir Haydn en este bello oratorio y lo plasmó perfectamente en la ejecución con instrumentos de la época que puedo escuchar en estos discos,el caracter y el nivel alcanzado con los cantantes y los instrumentos merece un reconocimiento ya que una ejecución de este tipo no es nada fácil (afinación,tiempos),recomiendo comprar este CD,he escuchado otras versiones de este oratorio(Karajan,Böhm,Collin Davis)son muy buenas tambien pero si quieren escuchar lo que quizo expresar Haydn musicalmente y sobre todo con el sonido de la epoca me quedaría con esta.