Haydn’s The Seasons | Professional Ensemble
This performance marks the inaugural concert welcoming Marc Minkowski as Boston Baroque's newly appointed Music Director, a one-day-only celebration of an exciting new chapter, made possible by the extraordinary 52-year legacy of our founder, Martin Pearlman.
Following the great success of The Creation, Haydn poured his compositional powers into tracing the annual cycle of rural toils and rustic delights, from the tentative thaw of spring through summer's heat and autumn's harvest, to the cold inevitability of winter. The Seasons, composed between 1799 and 1801, brims with exceptional verve, energy, and warmth. From thunderstorms and bird calls to hunting scenes and harvest dances, its vivid musical storytelling sweeps through the turning year with humor, tenderness, and moments of breathtaking beauty. The final return to winter carries a deeper resonance, a human birth-to-old-age reflection that gives this seemingly pastoral work an emotional depth.
The libretto, adapted by Baron Gottfried van Swieten from James Thomson's celebrated English poem, was fashioned so the work could be performed in either German or English. Boston Baroque’s performance will take place in German.
Marc Minkowski, conductor