Joseph Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten/The Seasons (Blu-ray)

• The Seasons, a late work of Haydn's and the last oratorio he wrote, is a musical manifesto addressed to nature and the countryfolk, breaking ground with its hitherto unexplored subject-matter as it heralds the dawning Romantic era in music.
• "Jubilation!" (Kronen Zeitung) in the Great Festival Hall in Salzburg for Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Seasons with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and for Michael Schade, Florian Boesch and Dorothea Röschmann in the solo parts, enhanced by the well-rehearsed choir of the Vienna State Opera.
• Nikolaus Harnoncourt tunes his "Wiener" to peak performance and shows as few others can how "to coax the tenderest expressive pianissimo shiver from the violins and violas into the almost inaudible", enthuses the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
• Including the documentary "Nikolaus Harnoncourt rehearsing Joseph Haydn's The Seasons" by Eric Schulz.

Joseph Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten