61 years before Haydn's oratorio setting, English composer John Christopher Smith (1712-1795) set to music the epic poem "The Seasons" by Scottish poet James Thomson. Smith's rhythmically crisp and melodically appealing English Baroque style is well-suited to Thomson's colorful depictions of mother nature and the idealized country folk singing together while harvesting their crops. In this work, John Christopher Smith writes imaginative music that places him as a serious composer in the mighty shadow of Handel.