Die Jahreszeiten, Hob. XXI

Haydn's second great oratorio, known in English as "The Seasons", was composed 1799-1800 in the wake of the great success and popularity of its predecessor. As with "The Creation", the German libretto provided to Haydn was the work of Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who adapted and translated excepts from the lengthy English poem of James Thompson also entiled "The Seasons." The premiere, given on April 24, 1801 in Vienna, was successful - but not as wildly popular as the previous work. The score reproduced here is an authoritative vocal and piano score in German, English and French issued by Breitkopf und Härtel in the early 20th century, with the original piano reduction carefully edited by Paul Klengel. Unlike so many of the on-demand scores now available, this one comes with all the pages and the images have been thoroughly checked to make sure it is readable. The score is beautifully printed on off-white stock with a quality cover.

• IMSLP page
• Wikipedia article