I had never spent that much time around Haydn’s vocal music and didn’t really know how beautiful it was. This was my second opportunity to work with Maestro Nézet-Séguin and I was so looking forward to it. The soloists were incredible and the chorus music was exciting, sometimes raucous and all around entertaining. I hope I get to do this piece again!

Yannick Nézet-Séguin - Conductor
Regula Mühlemann - Soprano
Werner Güra - Tenor
Matthew Rose - Bass
Philadelphia Symphonic Choir - Mixed chorus

PROGRAM

Haydn - The Seasons

“This is one of his greatest masterpieces,” says Yannick about Haydn's The Seasons. “He put everything he had into that score.” From the first blush of spring to impending winter, Haydn's exuberant oratorio, written close to the end of his life, encompasses a full year of living: sunrises and sunsets, a thundering storm, the wonder of nature and all the Earth's creatures, sonorous calls to the hunt, and boisterous drinking songs. Yannick's mission to bring great choral repertoire to Verizon Hall continues with gusto with what he calls Haydn's “most touching work: grand scale and very full of life, joy, and hope.”

*** Program descriptions have been taken from The Philadelphia Orchestra