The Seasons, Barbican Centre

Sir Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic artistic director, may be best known for his work with the late romantic repertoire, but his talent for cultivating extraordinary performances extends throughout the history of classical music. What a delight, then, that his return to the London Symphony Orchestra for the Barbican’s 2015/16 season includes one of the eighteenth century’s greatest oratorios – Haydn’s The Seasons.
Based on the epic poem by the Scot James Thomson (Rule Britannia), the Seasons is one of those works that seems to contain the entirety of the world within it. So, there’s the guttering storms of Winter and the exuberant dances of Spring alongside calls of wildlife and the cruelty of the hunt. It is a truly panoramic view of both nature and the people that interact with it. Written towards the end of the composer’s life, it shows him at the peaks of his inventive powers, and is perhaps the greatest secular oratorio ever composed.
Rattle and the LSO will be joined by the Simon Halsey’s London Symphony Chorus and three first-rate soloists – soprano Monika Elder, tenor John Mark Ainsley and baritone Florian Boesch. With such a stellar line-up, this promises to be an unmissable performance of a sublime piece, and a tantalizing preview of Rattle’s future as chief conductor of the LSO.