Haydn: The Seasons - 2 CD

Haydn was on a roll when he started The Seasons, having just completed The Creation. His unique blend of drama and naiveté gives rise to music which is at worst charming, and at best overwhelming. René Jacobs shapes a performance which is quite brilliant, even by his own high standards. It oozes character and invention just like the music itself. The vocal soloists Marlis Petersen, Werner Güra, and Dietrich Henschel complete the cast. There s not a weak link in earshot.' BBC Radio 3, CD Review Gramophone Editor s Choice Benchmark, BBC Music Magazine Classic FM Magazine Very Best of 2004 Daily Telegraph Classical CDs of the Year Sunday Times Records of the Year Sunday Telegraph Records of the Year Gramophone Critics Choice Penguin Guide 100 Outstanding Recordings (Rosette) BBC Radio 3 Top Choice, Building a Library 'It would be hard to imagine a more joyful account of Haydn's culminating masterpiece. René Jacobs and his outstanding team perfectly capture the exuberance with which the composer seemed to be defying the years.' Edward Greenfield, Editor s Choice, Gramophone, Awards issue, 2004 'Not content with winning Gramophone's Record of the Year for his Figaro, René Jacobs turns his loving attention to Haydn's final oratorio. There have been some splendid recordings of this charming, bucolic masterpiece, but none as infectiously exuberant as this, which is given extra vitality by the richness of Jacobs' period-instrument forces. All this and his three soloists beat all their rivals, to boot.' Andrew Clarke, The Independent, 16-22 October 2004, ***** 'Buy a copy and banish Seasonal Affective Disorder for good.' International Record Review, December 2004.