[Hob. XXI:3]. Die Jahreszeiten ... Klavierauszug. [Piano-vocal score]

Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1801. Oblong folio. Orange paper boards with original publisher's printed wrappers with title within decorative borders laid down, small early vellum label with "118" to spine. 1f. (recto title with engraved vignette by F.W. Nettling after Schubert depicting an allegory of the seasons, verso blank), 176 pp., with publisher's catalogue to lower portion of p. 174 and pp. 175-176. Text in German and French. Typeset throughout.

Numbering and occasional markings in pencil.

Wrappers worn and abraded, part of lower lacking; small early manuscript annotations to lower outer corner of upper, with portion cancelled. (truncated) Minor to moderate foxing; minor staining. First Edition. HWV II, p. 59. Hoboken Catalogue Vol. 9, 1419. RISM H4690.

One of Haydn's two masterful oratorios, this secular work was written shortly after The Creation (1798) to a libretto by Baron Gottfried von Swieten (1733-1803) after the eponymous poem by James Thomson (1700-1748) published in 1730. The work was first performed on 24 April 1801 in a private première at the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna; the first public production took place on 29 May 1801.

"Although the initial reception of The Seasons was favourable – Haydn wrote to Clementi that it had enjoyed ‘unanimous approval’ and that ‘many prefer it to The Creation, because of its greater variety’ – critical opinion soon became mixed, owing in part to its perceived ‘lower’ subject, in part to a growing aesthetic resistance to its many pictorialisms. Haydn himself contributed to both strands of criticism: he supposedly said to Francis II, ‘In The Creation angels speak and tell of God, but in The Seasons only Simon speaks’ (Dies); and he indiscreetly criticized Swieten’s croaking frogs (‘Frenchified trash’) and the absurdity of a choral hymn to toil (Fleiss). Nonetheless he maintained that it would join The Creation in assuring his lasting fame. For the publication he took the path of lesser resistance, selling the rights to Breitkopf & Härtel. ...

Notwithstanding its less exalted subject, The Seasons is compositionally more virtuoso than The Creation and offers greater variety of tone: Haydn’s pastoral is one of the final glories of a tradition that is more than ‘high’ enough." Georg Feder and James Webster in Grove Music Online

The music is "of wonderful freshness and unfailing originality." TNG Vol. 8, p. 347. (Inventory #: 40448)