Haydn wrote three oratorios: "The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross," which started life as an orchestral work (1786), then was adapted as a string quartet (1787) and finally changed into an oratorio with both solo and choral vocal forces (1796); "The Creation" (1798) and "The Seasons" (1801). Living in a country where seasonal feelings are of utmost importance, I decide to listen to "The Seasons" (also because that is the only one of the three still new to me).
Haydn was spurred to compose Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by the great success of his previous oratorio, Die Schöpfung (1798), which was being performed throughout Europe at the time. Baron Gottfried van Swieten, the son of the famous Dutch court physician at the imperial court in Vienna, who also played a major role in Mozart's career, wrote the libretto for both works. The text was his own translation into German of parts of the English cycle of poems The Seasons by James Thomson (1700-1748), from whom - on a side note - also came the text of the unofficial British national anthem "Rule, Britannia!" Van Swieten, however, greatly changed the original by shifting the scene to the Austrian countryside and painting a rather idealized picture of peasant life.
It took Haydn two years to complete the work, and the premiere in Vienna on 24 April 1801 was a success. "Die Jahreszeiten" was written for a large classical orchestra, with a four-part choir and three soloists representing the country folk: the farmer Simon (bass), his son Lukas (tenor) and his wife Hanne (soprano). Unlike most oratorios, the text is not religious. It deals with subjects such as love, hunting and merry drunkenness. "Die Jahreszeiten" is (of course!) divided into 4 parts: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Among the more spirited choral movements are a hunting song with French horn sounds, a wine festival with dancing peasants, and a raging storm, the latter two elements almost a foreshadowing of the third and fourth movements of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony from just seven years later. More lyrical passages include the choral prayer for a bountiful harvest, "Sei nun gnädig, milder Himmel," the gentle nightfall that follows the storm, and Hanne's cavatine on winter.
As in The Creation, the composition is often illustrative and like a tone-painting: for example, a plowing farmer at work whistles the familiar theme from Haydn's Surprise Symphony; a bird shot by a hunter also falls musically; a sunrise is depicted in radiant D major. After two hours of such secular scenes from nature and country life, the work concludes with an invocation to God and an Amen.
Below is a great performance by the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, at the Salzburg Festival 2013.
German libretto.
Choral Masterworks