Seasonal music by Haydn

Synopsis

Haydn’s oratorio “The Seasons” had its premiere performance on this date in Vienna in 1801. Like its predecessor, “The Creation,” Haydn’s new oratorio was a great success, and, as before, Haydn received help with the text and a lot of advice from the versatile Gottfried Bernhard Baron van Swieten, an enthusiastic admirer of Handel oratorios and the music of J. S. Bach.

Swieten’s text for “The Seasons” included many opportunities for Baroque-style “tone painting”—musical representations of everything from croaking frogs and workers toiling in the fields, sections that raised a lot of smiles in 1801 and still do today. Haydn, famous for his sense of humor, in this case humored the old-fashioned tastes of the Baron as well.

Speaking of the text, since Haydn was tremendous popular in England, Baron van Swieten prepared an English-language version of his text, trying to fit the English words to the rhythm of his original German. Alas, the good Baron’s command of English was, to put it diplomatically, perhaps not as firm he imagined. So these days, ensembles wishing to perform Haydn’s oratorio have a choice: they can opt for Swieten’s quaint but clunky English version, or his more graceful German original.

Music Played in Today's Program

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809) Ländler, fr The Seasons Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Neville Marriner, cond. Philips 438715

On This Day

Deaths

• 1921 - Dutch composer Alfons Diepenbrock, age 58, in Amsterdam;

• 1948 - Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, age 65, in Mexico City;

• 1998 - American composer Mel Powell, age 75, in Sherman Oaks, Calif.; He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1990;

Premieres

• 1742 - Handel: oratorio, "Messiah" (Julian date: April 13);

• 1801 - Haydn: oratorio "The Seasons," in Vienna;

• 1950 - Bernstein: incidental music "Peter Pan" (play by J.M. Barrie) at the Imperial Theater in New York City, conducted by Ben Steinberg;

• 1957 - Ives: String Quartet No. 1, in New York City (This music was completed in 1896);

• 1988 - Anthony Davis: "Notes from the Underground" (dedicated to Ralph Ellison), at Carnegie Hall in New York by the American Composers Orchestra, Paul Lustig Dunkel conducting;

• 1990 - Bright Sheng: "Four Movemenets" for piano trio, at Alice Tully Hall in New York City , by The Peabody Trio;

• 1992 - Joan Tower: Violin Concerto, with soloist Elmar Oliveira and the Utah Symphony, Joseph Silverstein conducting;

• 1997 - Stephen Paulus: opera "The Three Hermits," at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minn., with Thomas Lancaster conducting;