Academy of Ancient Music: Haydn's The Seasons

Mark Berry takes a look at the inspiration behind an oratorio that perfectly blends the sacred and the secular.

If Haydn, for posterity, has suffered for not having been Mozart, The Seasons has suffered similarly for not having been The Creation. Like Haydn and Mozart, Haydn’s two late oratorios merit comparison and contrast; Marc Vignal once suggested that we consider them a single ‘immense sacred opera’. In some musical respects, The Seasons is the more forward-looking of the two, not least in its anticipation of German Romanticism beyond Weber’s Der Freischütz at least as far as Wagner’s Flying Dutchman. Theologically, the picture is more complicated: Haydn’s two collaborations with librettist Gottfried van Swieten might be viewed as a stroll towards and retreat from Enlightenment elision of God and Nature. The Seasons presents Nature as something of a metaphor for spiritual renewal; we meet a reconciling God, recognisable both to Christian intellectuals and to those of a simpler faith.

Van Swieten was the son of Empress Maria Theresa’s physician and spent the early years of his career in the Austrian diplomatic service; this did not seem to interfere with his literary and musical interests, for he found time to compose operas and symphonies. His correspondence frequently mentions Enlightenment writers, many of whose censored or proscribed works – sometimes by his government, and at any rate, by the Roman Catholic Church – he procured for the Empress’s own chief minister, Prince Kaunitz. The Viennese Papal Nuncio commended van Swieten’s intelligence, yet lamented its use in the service of ‘moderno filosofismo’. Upon Maria Theresa’s death, Joseph II appointed van Swieten to the Presidency of the Educational Commission, where he aimed to underline the identity between religion as revealed in Scripture and as experienced in Nature. This would involve a thorough grounding for ‘future instructors of the people’ in philosophical ethics and in ‘natural theology’: that is, arguments for the existence of God through observation of His presence in Nature. The more utilitarian-minded Emperor, interested primarily in parish priests’ agricultural expertise, was unimpressed.

After Joseph’s death in 1790, however, his brother and successor Leopold II relieved van Swieten of responsibilities other than his longstanding and inoffensive duties as Imperial Librarian, leaving him to concentrate on his musical activities. During a posting to Berlin, van Swieten had encountered Handel’s oratorios and other early music. In about 1785 he had organised a society of Viennese aristocratic patrons to mount private, Sunday morning performances of oratorios, above all those of Handel. It was that society which commissioned both The Creation and The Seasons; it probably rendered van Swieten’s position as Haydn’s librettist a fait accompli.

Although Haydn was acquainted, through van Swieten’s Vienna performances, with many of Handel’s oratorios, nothing had prepared him for the 1791 Westminster Abbey Handel Festival, which boasted over a thousand performers. Thus inspired, Haydn had resolved to write a new oratorio on the subject of the Creation. Following its great success, a second collaboration was planned, in which van Swieten would play a still greater part. This was The Seasons, loosely based on James Thomson’s celebrated poem of the same name, whose length and patent unsuitability of many passages for musical setting necessitated the input of van Swieten.

The music writer Donald Tovey, a great admirer, exaggerated when he suggested that the composer ‘refrained from announcing The Seasons as an oratorio, because only a small part of the work has any pretensions to be sacred music at all’. Although in Hummel’s 1806 catalogue of the Esterházy collection it is listed as a cantata, 18th-century conceptions of the sacred were considerably broader than ours. The Creation takes us from the sublimity of God’s creation of the world itself to the human realm, for better or worse, of Adam, Eve and, ever so briefly, the serpent; while The Seasons explores the day-to-day, year-to-year life of God’s human creatures.

For van Swieten and in many respects for Haydn, too, religion was essentially a practical matter. One should do God’s work here on earth and, like the inhabitants of Voltaire’s paradise of Eldorado in Candide, ‘thank Him unceasingly for everything He has given, and worship God from morning till night’. In The Seasons, the characters, perhaps like the audience, are gently reminded, when they have stepped away from worship, of their need still to do so. Haydn’s faith was certainly cheerful and genuine. His pupil, Georg August Griesinger, recalled having heard him say: ‘If my composing is not proceeding so well, I walk up and down the room with my rosary in my hand, say several Aves, and then ideas come to me once again.’ Such popular piety was not van Swieten’s; we may even notice a tension between composer and the librettist. It should not, however, be exaggerated.

There may be perceived in the oratorio a related shift from rational contemplation of Nature towards a more emotional response. That certainly reflects a growing tendency during the course of the 18th century; Thomson’s poem notwithstanding, the libretto to The Seasons is probably about 50 years younger than that to The Creation. Thus, in Simon’s first aria, we hear of the eagerness with which the husbandman begins his tilling, how he whistles as he works as he fulfils Creation’s duties of stewardship; this offers ample opportunity for a musical pictorialism to which Haydn was more resigned than devoted. In general, it is only in the music that a truly popular note is struck: for example, at the opening of Hannah’s Song (in Summer) or in the playful flirtation of the Autumn duet between Lucas and Hannah. Van Swieten’s humanism did not extend to seeing the divine in superstitious peasants; his desire remained to enlighten them – and perhaps, while remaining aware of what Haydn was willing to set, even to enlighten him too.

Practical religious concerns are aired in Spring’s Chorus with solos, ‘Heav’n be gracious’. Peasants beseech gracious Heaven to be merciful and water their fields; certain of that outcome, they extol heavenly goodness. Rural life is to be enjoyed; depiction of that enjoyment by city-dwellers is also to be enjoyed. The religious message is more explicit in the following duet with chorus, subtitled ‘Song of Joy’. It opens with a delight similar to that heard in The Creation, albeit lacking the rapture of that first discovery of Nature. Van Swieten tells us of the joys of green meadows, lilies, lambs and bees, but the picture is also less static: ‘All is stirring, all is quiv’ring, Hark how lively Nature wakes!’. The sentiments this evokes are first described as joy and rapture, swelling the heart, but Simon explains that what the peasants feel in their hearts is ‘the mighty Creator’s will’. God’s presence in Nature is reinstated gently, without hectoring, before a final vast paean concludes Spring.

And so, in Winter, when we hear tell of a wanderer lost in the snow, his spirit – and ours? – at its most subdued, those daily, seasonal, annual routines continue to progress. The revived traveller finds relief in the light and warmth of a nearby house, a reversal for which Thomson affords no source. Following severe winter chill, the temperature, indoors at least, is warmed through homespun (literally, in the spinning chorus) wisdom from Hannah and the chorus: perhaps the clearest instances of that folkish mood tending towards Weber’s Freischütz. Simon’s final aria turns towards the mortality of man, the seasons presented as an allegory of the human lifespan. The ailing composer himself acknowledged an autobiographical content, while touchingly paying homage to Mozart in quoting from his Symphonies Nos 39 and 40 at the phrase ‘The Summer spirit long pass’d by’. If Haydn hints at the pleasures of a life well lived, and in Mozart’s case a candle well burned, van Swieten offers a sterner message, quoting directly from Thomson: ‘Only Virtue lasts’.

The Seasons does not, however, end on so austere a note. Trumpets herald the glorious morn, an awakening to new life. Thomson had said something similar, but for him the ‘glorious morn’ had merely been the dawning of spring. For Haydn and van Swieten, it is also a unique event: the Resurrection of the Dead. A Handelian double chorus is here put to very different use from that in Israel in Egypt. This instead is a question-and-answer session of salvation; a trial, but one which can be passed. Haydn, moreover, triumphantly reconciles the light first dazzlingly evoked in The Creation with an outpouring of joy in the form of fanfares for massed trumpets and horns. The Haydn of old, who confessed that his heart would leap with joy upon thinking of God, is still with us.

The visuals created by Nina Dunn’s Studio, PixeLux, are a ponderous promenade through the familiar landscape of subtly shifting seasons. The music and visuals go hand in hand to transport you to a place where you have been many times and to where you wish to return with a fresh gaze. The scenes have been inspired by the emotive quality of impressionistic painting by the way seasons have been represented through the ages. The studio team, led by Matthew Brown, worked closely with the Academy of Ancient Music to translate into movement and colour the already powerful ambience of Haydn’s music, underlying moments of beauty and the universal human experience.

Programme and performers

Joseph Haydn The Seasons

1. Spring

2. Summer

3. Autumn

4. Winter

Academy of Ancient Music

Laurence Cummings conductor

Rachel Nicholls* soprano

Benjamin Hulett tenor

Jonathan Lemalu bass-baritone

Nina Dunn Studio video and projection design

Martin Parr staging director

*Due to ill-health, Sophie Bevan has sadly had to withdraw from this engagement. We're grateful to Rachel Nicholls for agreeing to step in at short notice.

Text

1 Introduction and Accompagnato

Simon
See Winter, stern and gloomy, flees
To farthest reaches of the north.
And foll’wing at his beck,
His blust’ry ruffians quit the vales,
With dreadful groans and howling.

Lucas
From tow’ring crags the melting snows
In slushy torrents swiftly roll.

Hannah
And lo! from southern shores
Breathe softest zephyrs, warm and mild,
Sweet messengers of Spring!

2 Chorus
Come, gentle Spring!
Thou gift of Heaven, come!
From frozen wint’ry grave, bid drowsy Nature rise!
The smiling Spring is almost here,
The linden blossom soon will cheer,
And all will burst to life again.
Take heed! Do not rejoice so soon,
For creeping mists and freezing fogs abound,
And Winter oft returns to spread o’er shoots and buds,
A deadly, malicious frost.
Come gentle Spring!
Thou gift of Heaven, come!
Descend upon our verdant plains.
O come, gentle Spring,
Make haste, do not delay!

3a Recitative

Simon
From Aries shines the bright’ning sun, o’er all the world below.
Now cold and dampness yield to kindly breezes, warm and mild.
The frozen earth breaks free once more, and radiant is the firmament above.

3b Song

Simon
With eagerness the countryman sets forth to till the soil,
Through furrows long he whistling strides, and tunes a cheerful lay.
With measur’d gait and careful tread he scatters wide the seed,
And prays the faithful soil will bear, in time, a golden crop.

4a Recitative

Lucas
The countryman has paid his dues;
No care nor labour has he spared,
So gen’rous Nature will his diligence reward,
And thus to Heav’n he turns his humble pray’rs.

4b Chorus with solos

Lucas and Chorus
Heav’n be gracious, Heav’n be bounteous.
Open thou, and pour thy blessings o’er our fertile plains below.

Lucas
Let glist’ning dews revive our pastures!

Simon
Let show’rs of rain refresh our meadows!

Hannah
Let softest breezes warm the air, and let the
sun shine purest rays!

Hannah, Lucas, Simon and Chorus
For these abundant gifts we pray, and for thy
bounty, thanks be giv’n.

5a Recitative and Accompagnato

Hannah
Our fervent pray’rs are heard;
A warming breeze arises
And fills the sky with downy billows.
They rise aloft, they tumble down,
And pour their riches o’er the earth,
The pride and joy of Nature fair.
5b Duet and Chorus with solos

Hannah
O what charming sights delight us in the
prospect fair.
Come ye maidens, let us wander through the
flow’ry vales.

Lucas
O what charming sights delight us in the
prospect fair.
Come ye fellows, let us wander ’midst the
meadows green.

Hannah
See the lilies, see the roses, see the flowers all!

Lucas
See the farmland, see the bowers, see the
pastures all!

Chorus (Lads and Lasses)
O what charming sights delight us in the
prospect fair, etc.

Hannah
See the landscape, see the waters, see the
glitt’ring sky!

Lucas
All is stirring, all is quiv’ring, hark how lively
Nature wakes!

Hannah
See the newborn lambs are gamb’lling,

Lucas
See the shoals of fish are swimming,

Hannah
See the swarms of bees are buzzing,

Lucas
See the flocks of birds are flutt’ring,

Chorus (Lads and Lasses)
All is stirring, all is quiv’ring, hark how lively
Nature wakes!
O what pleasures, O what wonders fill our
gladden’d hearts.
Sweetest yearnings, gentlest longings soon
arise within our breasts.

Simon
Ev’ry feeling, ev’ry passion is the mighty
Creator’s will.

Chorus
Let us honour, let us worship, let us laud Him,
let us praise His name.
Let our voices hymn His glory and resound on
high!
Wonderful, bountiful, infinite God.

Hannah, Lucas, Simon
With Thine abundant blessings, mankind hast
Thou reviv’d.
With Thine o’erflowing goodness, mankind
hast Thou refresh’d.

Chorus
Hymns of praise we sing to Thee,
Wonderful, bountiful, infinite God.

6a Introduction and Accompagnato

Lucas
In darkness shrouded steals the dawn, in pearly mantle.
With falt’ring footsteps, in retreat, the weary night retires.
To gloomy caverns ferocious vultures now repair;
Their ghastly shriekings no longer pierce the trembling heart.

Simon
The well-reposed countryman, by the cock’rel’s raucous call awak’d,
To daily labour and worthy toil is summon’d.

6b Song and Accompagnato

Simon
The wakeful herdsman gathers up his cheerful flock of bleating sheep.
Through rolling hills and meadows green, slowly he drives them forth.
To eastern skies he lifts his gaze, while steadfast on his crook he leans.
He longs to see a glimm’ring ray, welcome sight of breaking day.

Hannah
The rosy dawn breaks forth at last;
Like wisps of smoke the clouds disappear.
The heav’ns are radiant, in azure serene,
The hills are burnish’d with fiery gold.

7 Chorus with solos

Hannah, Lucas, Simon and Chorus
Behold the Sun!
He creeps, He stalks, He climbs, He strides, He glows, He gleams;
He shines, resplendent and bright, enflam’d and in majesty!
Hail, O glorious Sun! Thou source of light and life, all hail!
O thou, the eye and soul of all, and image of our God! We offer thanks to thee.
How shall we tell of such great rapture, which by thy bounty now appears?
How shall we count the num’rous blessings, which by thy gentle grace are giv’n?
The rapture, O how shall we tell? The blessings, O how shall we count?

Hannah
All hail to thee for endless joy!

Lucas
All hail to thee for boundless cheer!

Simon
All hail to thee for matchless health!

Hannah, Lucas and Simon
All hail to thee,
Though all thy pow’r and strength to thee by God is giv’n.

Chorus
Hail, O glorious Sun! Thou source of light and life, all hail!
Rejoice, uplift your voices, sing praise(s) to Nature fair!

8a Recitative and Accompagnato

Simon
The village lads and lasses haste to the meadows;
A colourful throng spreads over the fields.
The waves of ripen’d corn bow down before the sunburnt reapers.
The sickles flash, the corn-stalks fall!
But soon the crop is gather’d and tightly
bound in sturdy sheaves.

Lucas
At noon the sun ascends with fiercest blaze
And pours through clear and cloudless skies
A torrent of fire on the meadows below.
While o’er the arid pastureland, above the
haze,
Appears a flood of dazzling brightness.

8b Cavatina

Lucas
Exhausted Nature, fainting, sinks.
Wilted blossoms, scorchèd meadows,
parchèd sources,
Witness all the raging heat,
And weary, languish man and beast,
outstretch’d upon the ground.

9a Accompagnato

Hannah
How welcome now, ye shady groves!
Where lofty boughs of ancient oak give cool,
refreshing shade,
And rustling leaves of slend’rest ash in
whisp’ring murmurs sound.
Through banks of downy mosses a bubbling
brooklet purls,
And merrily flits o’er blooming flow’rs, a host
of enamell’d insects.
The herbs breathe forth their sweetest scent,
on wings of zephyrs borne,
And from a neighb’ring thicket, tunes a
youthful shepherd’s reed.

9b Song

Hannah
How refreshing to the senses, how reviving to
the heart,
Life through ev’ry vein is flowing, joy in ev’ry
nerve awakes, enlivening the soul.
The spirit soars aloft with pleasure and
delight,
An ardent, rousing zeal assails the cheerful
breast.

10a Recitative and Accompagnato

Simon
Behold, arising through the sultry air,
Along a distant mountain reach,
A pallid cloud of mist and vapour;
Now forc’d aloft, it grows apace
And covers all the firmament with thickest
darkness.

Lucas
Hark, from the vale a muffl’d rumble foretells
th’impending storm.
See, brooding with fate, the blacken’d billows
slowly creep
And, threat’ning, hover o’er the plain.

Hannah
In fear and anguish, all Nature holds its
breath.
No beast, no leaf is stirring; a deathly silence
reigns.

10b Chorus with solos

Ah! The storm approaches near!
Heav’n protect us!
Hark, how the thunder rolls!
Hark, how the whirlwind roars!
Away, away! Where shall we fly?
Flashes of lightning break over the skies,
Their sharp, jagged forks are bursting the
billows,
And torrents drown us below.
Where is shelter?
Heav’n protect us!
Dreadful blasts the storm, the arch of Heav’n
is aflame.
Save us wretches!
Smashing, crashing, smack and crack,
The thunder growls with frightful noise.
Save us wretches!
The earth, convuls’d, is shaken, e’en to the
oceans’ deep.

Lucas
The gloomy storm clouds soon disperse
And silenc’d is the tempest’s rage.

Hannah
Before th’approaching eventide,
The sun peeps out once more,
And bathèd in those glorious beams,
Like brightest pearls, the meadows shine.

Simon
And so to long-acquainted byres,
Well sated and refresh’d, the cattle now return.

Lucas
In hedges, quails sing to their mates.

Hannah
In grasses, cheerful crickets chirp.

Simon
In marshes, gruffly croak the frogs.

Hannah, Lucas, Simon
The eve’tide curfew tolls.
For o’er us winks the brightest star
And calls us all to sweet repose.

Chorus
Lads and lasses, children come!
Sweetest slumber now awaits.
A spotless heart and healthy frame
Our daily labours shall attest.
We come, we follow thee!
The eve’tide curfew slowly toll’d.
For o’er us winks the brightest star,
And calls us all to sweet repose.

11 Introduction, Accompagnato and Recitative

Hannah
That which Spring has promis’d, adorn’d in blossom fair,
That which Summer ripen’d, with streams of sunshine clear,
In Autumn gold is gather’d, to cheer the farmer’s breast.

Lucas
Th’abundant harvest home he brings, on wagons heavy laden,
And scarcely can his barns enclose the crop his land has yielded.

Simon
Now all around he casts his eye
And measures all his plenteous produce there;
As pride and gladness warm his heart.

12 Trio and Chorus with solos

Simon
Thus Nature rewards our toil!
She smiles and cheers our work.
She guides us with encouragement
And lends a willing hand.
She governs us with strength and pow’r.

Hannah and Lucas
From thee, O Toil, comes ev’ry good.
The cottage where we dwell,
The garments which we wear,
The produce which we eat,
Are all thy gifts, and thy reward.
O Toil, O noble Toil, from thee comes ev’ry good.

Hannah
From thee comes worthiness, thou temp’rest slothfulness and vice.

Lucas
By thee the heart of man is cleans’d and purify’d.

Simon
Through thee comes strength and will, that
duty and honour fill our daily lives.

Chorus
O Toil, O noble Toil, from thee comes ev’ry
good.

13a Recitative

Hannah
See how a bunch of eager lads to the hazel
trees now runs.
On all the branches swinging hangs a merry
little tribe;
And from the swaying boughs there falls a
hailstorm of ripen’d fruit.

Simon
The farmhand fetches a ladder and to the
topmost branch he swiftly climbs aloft.
Now, hidden by the leaves, he spies his
sweetheart down below.
As slowly she approaches, he flings the nuts
before her, in teasing lover’s jest.

Lucas
In the orchard stand round ev’ry tree pretty
maidens, big and small;
As ruddy, fresh and wholesome as the fruits
they gather!

13b Duet

Lucas
Fine ladies of the town, come here!
Admire a charming and simple country lass!
She needs no rings nor powder’d face,
Behold my Hannah, behold!
The bloom of health glows on her rosy cheeks,
Her smiling eyes beam happiness
And how her lips speak from her heart
When love she swears to me.

Hannah
Ye mincing dandies stay away!
Your airs and graces count for naught,
And foppish preenings are in vain!
All this we simply cannot bear.
No gold nor gaudy dress can dazzle us,
An honest heart is all we ask.
And all my happiness is sure
If faithful my Lucas remains.

Lucas
Summer fruits will fall,
Autumn leaves will fade,
Winter days will pass,
But ne’er my love for thee.

Hannah
Sweeter taste the fruits,
Greener grow the leaves,
Brighter shine the days,
With love and constancy.

Hannah and Lucas
O how pure, O how sweet is joyous passion!
Both our hearts by love united,
Only death this bond can break.
Dearest Hannah! Sweetest Lucas!
Love, such wondrous, blissful rapture,
Is for man the highest pleasure,
‘Tis the crowning joy of life.

14a Recitative

Simon
On ravag’d hills there now appears a host of
uninvited guests,
Who, seeking crops for nourishment, enjoy a
daily feast.
A few little thieves should not concern the
countryman; he can let them be.
But soon he suffers grievous losses which he
can ill afford.
All help which he can muster is to the farmer’s
benefit;
So gladly with his noble lord he joins the sport
of horse and hound.

14b Song

Simon
See lo on yonder open field, there prowls a
dog deep in the grass.
He sniffs the scent upon the ground and
follows it relentlessly.
Now seiz’d by eagerness he runs; he hears his
master’s voice no more.
He races, pursuing his prey, then stops at
once, and freezes, motionless as stone.
Then to escape th’approaching foe, a bird in
terror swift takes wing;
But even flight affords no aid.
A flash! A bang!
It is struck by the shot, and plummets down,
from the sky to earth.

15a Recitative and Accompagnato

Lucas
A tight’ning circle of hunters forces the hares to quit their formes.
From ev’ry side they’re corner’d, with nowhere to escape.
How soon they fall! And hung in rows, are proudly claim’d as hunter’s spoil.

15b Chorus
Hark, hear the sounds of the chase which in the forests resound.
Hark, hear the sounds of the chase re-echo through the woods.
The thrilling roar of the hunting horn, the hounds with their barking and baying.
The stag in dreadful fear takes flight and, chasing him, hounds and the huntsmen too!
He flees; O see how he leaps, O see how he bounds!
Look there, as out of the coppice he bursts
And darts o’er the fields to the thickets beyond.

For he has outwitted the hounds, they stray and wander o’er the meads.
The hounds have lost the scent, they ramble here and there.
Tally-ho, tally-ho, tally-ho!
The blaring horn and hunters’ calls assemble the pack again.
Ho ho ho! Tally-ho, tally-ho, tally-ho!
With ardour redoubled, swiftly skims o’er the plains the united throng.
Tally-ho, tally-ho, tally-ho!
Surrounded by his enemies, his spirit and his vigour fail.
Exhausted, drops the noble stag.
Proclaiming that the end is nigh, the jubilant horns give out their call,
As glorious huntsmen triumphantly sing: Blow Mort!

16a Recitative

Hannah
On vines, the grapes are glistening in purple bunches, sweet and juicy.
The sight reminds the vintner that it will soon be time to harvest.

Simon
Already tubs and vats are set below the hills,
And from their huts stream many happy workers to the pleasant task ahead.

Hannah
See how the slopes up yonder with swarms of folk are teeming!
Hear how their merry voices from ev’ry side resound!

Lucas
Their work is eas’d by laughing and joking, from early morn to evening,
And then the foaming wine, newly press’d, turns mirth to wild abandon.

16b Chorus
Drink up, drink up, the wine is here!
The barrels overflow,
Our hearts with joy are fill’d.
So drink up, drink up, drink!
Let cheerful songs resound,
Come, let us celebrate!

Let us drink now! Raise your glasses!
Let us celebrate!
Let us sing now! Raise your voices!
Let us celebrate!
Drink up, drink up, drink! All hail to the wine!

Let’s drink to the lands which vines afford,
Hey ho hey! All hail to the wine!
Let’s drink to the vats in which it’s stor’d,
Hey ho hey! All hail to the wine!
Let’s drink to the jugs from which it’s pour’d,
Hey ho hey! All hail to the wine!
Come, good fellows, fill the tankards.
Drain the glasses, let us celebrate!
So drink up, drink up, drink!
Let cheerful songs resound,
Hey ho, hey ho! All hail to the wine!

Now the pipers are piping and cheerfully tuning,
And the drummers now are merrily beating,
While the fiddlers are scraping,
And the groaning musettes are a-whining.
The bagpipes are droning and droning and droning!
Little children are skipping
And the youngsters are jumping and prancing and leaping
As the maidens are flying to the arms of their
lovers
In a fine country reel.

Dance and trip it, hop and skip it!
Come fellows, come!
Dance and trip it, Hey there, ho there!
Let’s fill the cups!
Hop and skip it, Hey there, ho there!
Let’s drain the cups!
Let us celebrate!
So drink up, drink up, drink!
Let cheerful songs resound.

Shout and be merry!
Jump and gambol!
Laugh and carol!

Now let us bring the final cup and let us sing
with hearty voice,
In praise of cheering, noble wine.

All hail to our wine, our noble wine, which
frightens all cares away!
Its praise be sung both far and wide, rejoicing
then ten-thousand-fold!
Hey there, ho there! Let us celebrate!
Let cheerful songs resound! Hey! Ho!

17a Introduction and Accompagnato

Simon
The jaded year now fades away
And freezing fogs and mists abound,
Enshrouding mountains in their grasp
And hov’ring over barren plains.
For e’en the midday sun is now eclips’d by
dusky gloom.

Hannah
From Lapland’s dismal caverns
With stealth comes stormy Winter,
And by those threat’ning steps
All Nature, stupefy’d, is still’d.

17b Cavatina

Hannah
Light and life are enfeebl’d,
Warmth and joy have sadly vanish’d.
Mournful, gloomy daylight
Follows endless, unrelenting darkness.

18a Recitative and Accompagnato

Lucas
The lake lies lock’d in frosty grip,
The babbling brook is silenc’d by ice.
The cataract, once plunging from the tow’ring
ledge,
In deathly stillness roars no more.
In brittle woodlands naught is heard.
The fields are cloth’d and valleys fill’d
With monstrous banks of feath’ry snow.
And all the earth is now a grave
Where Nature’s splendours sleep entomb’d.
Across the frozen wilderness of ruthless,
glacial savageness,
A ghostly pallor covers all.

18b Song

Lucas
The wand’rer stands perplex’d, in great
anxiety;
He knows not where his falt’ring steps to turn.
In vain he strives to find his way
As neither path nor track appears,
And wading through the drifting snow
He finds himself still more astray.
Too soon his courage fails;
His heart is seiz’d by fear.
He knows the day will soon be gone
And weariness and cold turn all his limbs to lead.
Then suddenly ahead of him he sees a bright and flick’ring light.
With joy restor’d again, and eager, beating heart,
In haste he runs to reach the house;
From ice and snow he hopes to find relief.

19a Recitative and Accompagnato

Lucas
And drawing near the welcome sight,
His frozen ears, benumb’d by howling winds,
Hear the sound of cheerful voices.

Hannah
Behind the door, he finds a merry gathering
Of many friends and neighbours, engag’d in work and chatter
To while away the evening hours.

Simon
See all around the kitchen range
Old men are talking of times long past;
While young men piles of willow-reeds assemble,
As baskets, nets and fish-traps all need twining.
The mothers work at the distaff,
As their daughters spin at the wheel;
And all the work is cheer’d with simple song and melody.

19b Song with chorus

Chorus
Whirring, whirring, whirring!
Set the wheel a-purring!

Hannah
Little wheel, please twist for me
Thread as choice as e’er can be,
For my smock a-spinning!
Weaver, weave it soft and fine,
Worthy of this heart of mine,
Free, but never sinning!
Fair without and pure within,
Charming, comely, flawless skin,
All the lads a-winning!
Pure within and fair without,
Prayerful, zealous and devout,
Marriage soon beginning!

20a Recitative

Lucas
Now the flax has all been spun,
The wheels no longer turn,
The folk draw round
With lads and lasses all together.
They long to hear a little tale which Hannah oft recounts.

20b Song with chorus

Hannah
A noble squire, of great renown, desir’d a lovely maid,
And spying her alone one day, jump’d off his horse and said:
‘My pretty lass, you’ve won my heart! Come, just a little kiss …’
She cried with fear and trembling, ‘Ah, why sir, that’s quite amiss!’

Chorus
Ha ha ha ha! But why, why not say ‘no’?

Hannah
‘Be not alarm’d, thou beauteous maid’ with roguish charm quoth he,
‘And doubt not that I’ll always prove a truelove unto thee.
Please! Be my lady! Here! My ring, my purse, and watch so fine.
And should you still want more from me, just speak - it shall be thine!’

Chorus
Ha ha ha ha! Indeed that sounds quite fine.

Hannah
‘Kind sir,’ quoth she, ‘I pray, beware my brothers, lest they see;
For should they spread the tale about, what
would become of me?
Were they not working over there, to thee I
might yet yield …
Creep through that hedge, and let me know if
they’re in yonder field.’

Chorus
Ha ha ha ha! And so what next I pray?

Hannah
The thorns and briars held him so fast as he
were in a vice;
Meanwhile the maid sprang on his steed and
vanish’d in a trice!
‘Farewell to thee, my gentle swain,’ cried she
in cheerful scorn,
‘Next time you try to pluck a rose, you’ll not
forget the thorn!’

Chorus
Ha ha ha ha! Well play’d, young lass!

21a Recitative

Simon
And from the east there blows an icy blast of
piercing cold,
Harsh and cutting to the bone.
It gathers up the mists and steals the breath
from man and beast.
With this ferocious tyrant Winter’s battle has
been won.
Now speechless and in fear, the whole of
Nature lies aghast.

21b Song and Accompagnato

Simon
Consider then, misguided man, a picture of
thy life unfolds.
The Spring of life, short-liv’d, is gone,
The Summer spirit long pass’d by.
And then advance the Autumn years,
While cold and pallid Winter nears
And points to thee an open grave.

Where now, those schemes of high
endeavour?
Those lofty hopes and plans?
The search for earthly glory and vain desire
of fame?
Where are they now, those days of plenty,
and wanton luxury?
And where, those happy evenings of endless
revelry?
Where are they now? Where?
They all are vanish’d, as a dream.
Only Virtue lasts!

Alone She lasts, and leads us on,
unchangeable, through passing days and
years,
In sorrow and in gladness to reach life’s
highest destiny.

22 Double Chorus with solos

Simon
Then dawns that morn so glorious
When God th’Almighty gathers us, to life
again renew’d;
From pain and death forever free!
The gates of Heav’n fling open wide, the Holy
Mount appears.
There stands the House of God, where peace
and freedom dwell.

Choir 1
But who may pass between these gates?
Hannah, Lucas, Simon
The man whose life was incorrupt.

Choir 2
And who may climb the Holy Mount?
Hannah, Lucas, Simon
The man whose lips spoke only truth.

Choir 1
And who may make that house his dwelling?
Hannah, Lucas, Simon
The man who help’d the poor and weak.

Choir 2
And who in peace and joy shall prosper?
Hannah, Lucas, Simon
The man who sav’d the pure and meek.

Choir 1
For lo! That glorious morn is near,

Choir 2
Behold, the morning light!

Choirs 1 and 2
The gates of Heav’n fling open wide, the Holy Mount appears.
Forever gone, forever past, are days of endless suff’ring and wint’ry storms of life.
For Spring eternal reigns, and boundless joy and blessedness are Virtue’s true reward.

Hannah, Lucas, Simon
May we enjoy that true reward. Let us labour, let us battle.

Choirs 1 and 2
Let us labour, let us battle, to secure that worthy prize.

Chorus
Direct us in Thy ways, O God, and make us strong and brave.
Then shall we sing,
And shall ascend
Into the glorious heav’nly realm.
Amen.

Artist biographies

Academy of Ancient Music is an orchestra with a worldwide reputation for excellence in Baroque and Classical music. Using historically informed techniques, period-specific instruments and original sources, it brings music vividly to life in committed, vibrant performances.

Established nearly 50 years ago to make the first British recordings of orchestral works using original instruments, AAM has released more than 300 albums to date, collecting countless accolades including Classic BRIT, Gramophone and Edison awards. The ensemble now records on its own label – AAM Records – and is the most listened-to period-instrument orchestra online, with over one million monthly listeners on streaming platforms.

Beyond the concert hall, AAM is committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers through its innovative side-by-side learning and participation initiative AAMplify. Working in collaboration with partners at the Guildhall School, London Music Masters, Cambridgeshire Music Hub and others it reaches thousands of children and young people across primary, secondary and tertiary education each year.

AAM is Associate Ensemble at the Barbican Centre and the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice, and Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge, Milton Abbey International Summer Music Festival and The Apex, Bury St Edmunds. The 2022/23 season is the second for Music Director Laurence Cummings, who joins the orchestra as it approaches its 50th anniversary next year.

Hall

Location
The Barbican Hall is located within the main Barbican building. Head to Level G and follow the signs to find your seating level.

Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
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Saved events

Academy of Ancient Music: Haydn's The Seasons

Details

Programme and performers

Programme and performers

Text

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Artist biographies