This rather boring, slightly cut recording of Haydn’s perennially fresh oratorio The Seasons was highly regarded in its day (the mid-1960s), when competition was sparse. Indeed, it features excellent solo singing, graceful playing, and decent, if not great, choral contributions from smallish forces. But whereas Wolfgang Gönnenwein achieved excellent results in the music of Bach (in particular a St. Matthew Passion that is highly regarded still), his Haydn is a very different story. There’s none of the color, drama, and urgency that we find in performances as varied as those by Dorati, Böhm, Davis (in English), and Gardiner. Compare the way these four, in their different ways, realize the earthy festivities of Autumn’s concluding bacchanal to Gönnenwein’s soft-edged politeness, further marred by a hideous cut toward the end. We’ve come a long way since 1965.
