Die Jahreszeiten
Oratorio in four parts, Hob. XXI:3
Music by Joseph Haydn.
Libretto by Gottfried van Swieten.
Film by Toni Schmid, Meike Ebert and Raphael Kurig
In his third and last oratorio »Die Jahreszeiten«, Joseph Haydn guides the listener through the changing seasons of the year: the buds burst forth in spring, the sun blazes down in summer, the farmers celebrate the wine festival in autumn and the land prepares for its winter sleep. Together with the tenant farmer Simon, his daughter Hanne, the farmer Lukas and the chorus of country people, we experience the beauty and danger, the joys and the troubles that their path through the world brings.
Where Joseph Haydn and his librettist Gottfried van Swieten told the religious and mythical story of the creation of the world in »Die Schöpfung«, in »Die Jahreszeiten «, they provide a depiction of busy country folk experiencing the richness of creation throughout the year – once again creating an allegorical connection between nature and life with a sense of humility and piety. Along with its predecessor work »Die Schöpfung«, this oratorio, first performed in 1801, is one of the most important classical contributions to the genre and, with its often onomatopoeic depictions of nature in musical form, points forward to the oratorio of the romantic era. Under the baton of Marco Comin, the concert is accompanied by impressions of Munich on film.
Cast
Soloists, Choir and Orchestra of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz