ABSTRACT
Even before completing The Seasons, Haydn seems to have envisaged writing one further oratorio. As difficulties started to mount in setting van Swieten’s text, and criticism took root concerning the Baron’s contribution to The Creation, Haydn let it be known that he would have rather set the Last Judgement than The Seasons. 1 During the last months of 1801 false reports appeared in the press indicating that the composer was actually engaged in composing an oratorio on the subject of the Last Judgement. 2 Haydn’s seriousness regarding this subject is evident from Griesinger’s correspondence with Breitkopf & Härtel. Although van Swieten seems to have begun work on such an oratorio, Haydn himself was determined to find another collaborator. 3 A letter of 21 April 1802 shows the Empress, among others, urging Haydn to compose a further large-scale work; Haydn hoped that the poet Wieland, who had written a poem praising The Creation, would write the text:
[Haydn] believes that the Last Judgement would provide rich material: namely, in the first part Death, in the second Resurrection, [and] in the third Hell and Heaven. The thought seems Baroque, but in the head of a genius it could perhaps be satisfactorily realized.... Haydn would work at it con amore, especially since it is one of the Empress’s pet ideas. 4
