Naxos
2006
Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons)
About This Album
If one were to encounter this fine performance in the concert hall, one would surely enjoy it while it was happening and retain pleasant memories of it after it ended. Morten Schuldt-Jensen is clearly a talented choral conductor, and under his skillful direction, the Gewandhaus-Kinderchor sings with much energy and more enthusiasm. Tonally sweet soprano Sibylla Rubens, technically solid tenor Andreas Karasiak, and interpretatively commanding bass Stephan MacLeod sing with much fire and more fervor. The Leipziger Kammerorchester is a capable if distinctly on the small-side ensemble and it plays with much persuasiveness, if somewhat more professionalism. However, encountering this performance in a recording, one would have the opportunity to pick nits in the playing -- the Kammerorchester is not always exactly together with the Kinderchor -- and find fault with the singing -- Rubens does tend toward the saccharine and MacLeod does lean toward the stolid. Worse, one would also have the opportunity to compare it with the great recordings of the past -- Karl Böhm's deeply human and profoundly spiritual performance on DG with the clarion Gundula Janowitz, the heroic Peter Schreier, the magnificent Martti Talvela, the superlative Wiener Singverein, and the not-quite-in-the-same-league-as-the-Wiener-Philharmoniker-but-still-superb Wiener Symphoniker immediately come to mind -- and, unfortunately, a fine performance cannot stand up to a transcendent performance. Naxos' sound is typically clean, but no cleaner than DG's, and a whole lot less evocative. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
Track List

Disc 1

Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), Oratorio, H. 21/3
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Disc 2

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