Haydn: The Seasons review – glorious

Sampson/Ovendon/Foster-Williams, National Forum of Music Choir, Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort & Players/McCreesh(Signum)This successor to Haydn’s Creation has often felt in the shadow of the earlier masterpiece, but this recording brings it thrillingly to life. Avoiding the early-music tendency to small forces, Paul McCreesh assembles a massive throng of singers and players, the numbers that might have performed the piece in 1801. And what a noise they make! From the