Seasons

Amazon.com

Vivaldi wasn’t the only composer to write a Four Seasons. Haydn’s version is an oratorio–essentially an opera without staging–in which three archetypal peasants sing of the joys and travails of country life throughout the year. Coming after the sublime subject of The Creation, Haydn had qualms about the text, which he called "Frenchified trash" on more than one occasion. As if to compensate, the music he created was more colorful and vivacious than ever. The Seasons is, in fact, the largest single vocal and orchestral work before Berlioz–larger even than Beethoven’s Ninth. It firmly establishes Haydn as not only the first classical master, but a firm precursor of romanticism. And "Romantic" is exactly the word which describes the grand, exuberant performance–the best available. –David Hurwitz