[Hob. XXI:3]. [Die Jahreszeiten ... Klavierauszug]

[Leipzig]: [Breitkopf & Härtel], 1802. Oblong quarto. Half green cloth with modern marbled boards, decorative cut paper label with manuscript titling to upper. 174 pp. Typeset. Text in German and French. With first part of publisher's catalogue to foot of final page of music.

With "Haydn's J.Z." printed to lower margin of some pages.

Light uniform browning, heavier to some leaves; some minor foxing and staining; very slightly trimmed at upper and lower margins, not affecting text or notation but very occasionally just touching or cropping pagination. Somewhat tightly bound, occasionally just slightly affecting ease of legibility (truncated) at extreme inner margins. Lacking title leaf and one leaf containing continuation of publisher's catalogue at conclusion. HWV II, p. 59. Hoboken Collection 9, 1419. RISM H4691.

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 #: 40453)