Compared to 'Creation', 'The Seasons' is relatively unknown, not widely recorded and infrequently performed. It is sometimes, unjustly, regarded as an inferior work, for two principal reasons. - The text: an English text, translated into German and then translated back for English performances, the word setting is often ungainly, occasionally risible. - It is rarely performed with the forces on which Haydn himself insisted: a huge orchestra (60 strings!) that brings the work vibrantly to life.

It is our fervent belief that a new recording, employing the large orchestral forces that Haydn' himself used, will set the record straight and will help to bring this work to public attention - and admiration! Our Artistic Director, Paul McCreesh, has made his own new translation of the text, restoring the rhyming couplet structure and much of the beautiful imagery of the original, recreating the work's celebration of English countryside and country traditions.