Haydn, Joseph: Die Jahreszeiten - Concert 1959

The opening concert of the 1959 Schwetzingen Festival was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Joseph Haydn’s death, and where could his secular oratorio have found a more fitting setting than the Rococo Hall of a palace whose grounds are, in themselves, a declaration of love for nature? For it is precisely the relationship between man and nature that is at the heart of Haydn’s The Seasons, based on an English text by James Thomson, which Baron van Swieten had translated into German. With a soloist ensemble comprising Fritz Wunderlich, Agnes Giebel and Kieth Engen, the Schwetzingen opening concert became a major artistic event, of which this recording conveys a vivid impression.