Have these versions ever been recorded?

[Chris]

Oh yes, I remember another one I have wondered about for a while.

Is there a recording of Haydn's oratorio The Seasons that uses the original English text (by which I mean the one originally re-translated back into English from the German)? There must be, but I know there are some with new English translations as well, and those are the ones that always seem to come up in my searches.

[Roehre]

Is there a recording of Haydn's oratorio The Seasons that uses the original English text (by which I mean the one originally re-translated back into English from the German)? There must be, but I know there are some with new English translations as well, and those are the ones that always seem to come up in my searches.

There exists a recording which is "bi-lingual" in that sense that it uses the English text as far as Haydn set it [Haydn has NOT set the complete English libretto], and the rest in German [the Van Swieten text, that is].

IIRC it is one of the earlier HIP-recordings (before 1994, as I recall the programme in which this was discussed, broadcast December 1993), but at the moment I cannot recall which one, though it might be AAM/Hogwood

[Chris]

But wasn't the work premiered in English shortly after it was finished? Surely someone must have recorded the piece using that translation instead of a modern re-translation.

[Roehre]

But wasn't the work premiered in English shortly after it was finished? Surely someone must have recorded the piece using that translation instead of a modern re-translation.

It has been performed in English shortly after its Vienna premiere (which was in the German translation of Van Swieten)

The English texts used however exist in three different versions:
1) the one which was used by Van Swieten for his German translation (and partially used by Haydn)
2) the one Van Swieten translated from his German translation back into English (indentifiable by its rather odd accents/stresses and grammar)
3) a (more) modern (and more idiomatical) version

The German text is in Van Swieten's version only (and at least partially used by Haydn).

But which poerformance/recording uses which English version, I haven't the slightes I'm afraid.

[Frankli]

Jos van der Zanden convincingly proves in "Meneer de Boer" (Beethoven: Nieuwe Onthullingen, Haarlem 1993 pp.128-140 - an edited, amended and enlarged transcript of a series re Beethoven, broadcast on Dutch radio winter 1992/1993) that the Canon WoO 35 was meant for Samson Moses de Boer, a Dutch cellist, and that the canon is for 2 cellos (the music is to be found on p.136, but that's for some reason the violin version).
It was performed during that broadcast, but I've never seen that recording (or any another ) commercially or otherwise being released, .

for those interested in the sketches for these 9 bars of music: these are found (literary in the middle!) among the sketches for the 3rd mvt of opus 130 in the De Roda desk sketchbook (fol.30r, Beethovenhaus Bonn)

I find it interesting that the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam has information about this De Boer, and even his portrait in painting, but doesn't know that this same Samson de Boer was the man who visited Beethoven, while at the same time Beethoven researchers don't know how and where to place this De Boer, because they searched in the wrong places - even Dutch Van der Zanden, who discovered that Thayers's "Oscar de Boer" was incorrect.

Main reason, I think, is that there are different ways to write his name. One is "Samson de Boer", the other is "Simson de Boer". This makes a big difference in searching online sources.

Here you can find some information (use Google translate or something) and his portrait: http://goo.gl/kjptP

Simson/Samson de Boer was an important man for the jewish communities in Amsterdam in the 20's and 30's of the 19th c., mainly because of his generous gifts that would make the Jewish orphanage Megadle Jethomim possible.