for instance, commissioned poet Mark Strand to supply a series of readings to replace the "words"; the result was "Poem After the Seven Last Words" (included in the volume Man and Camel). In another recorded example, by the Aeolian Quartet in 1976, poetic readings were substituted for the "words", read by Peter Pears; these readings were from John Donne (Introduction), George Herbert (Adagio), Robert Herrick (Grave e cantabile), an anonymous 15th century writer (Grave), Edith Sitwell (Largo), Edwin Muir (Adagio) and David Gascoyne (Lento), and the final Largo and Earthquake completed the performance. Choral version (1796) In the course of his second journey to London (1794–1795), in Passau, Haydn had heard a revised version of his work, amplified to include a chorus, prepared by the Passau Kapellmeister Joseph Friebert. The words were not the original Latin but pietist poetry, written in German. Haydn was impressed with the new work and decided to improve on it, preparing his own choral version. He had the assistance of Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who revised the lyrics used by Friebert. This was the first work in a serial collaboration with van Swieten as librettist that continued with the later oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. The choral version was privately premiered in Vienna on 26 March 1796 before an audience of the nobility, under the sponsorship of the Gesellschaft der Associierten. The public premiere was on 1 April 1798, sponsored by the Tonkünstler-Societät, a Viennese benefit society for musicians. The work was published in 1801. Hoboken-Verzeichnis numbering The Seven Last Words of Christ has its own section in the Hoboken-Verzeichnis (Hob. XX): Hob. XX/1 – instrumental versions Hob. XX/1A – orchestral version (1786) Hob. XX/1B – quartet version (1787) = Hob. III/50–56 in the quartet section of the catalogue, also Op. 51 Hob. XX/1C – piano version (1787) Hob. XX/2 – choral version (oratorio, 1796). Selected discography Original orchestral version (1786) The Seven Last Words of Christ Le Concert des Nations, Jordi Savall. Recorded in the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva with readings by theologian Raimon Panikkar and Nobel Prize winner José Saramago. CD or DVD. The Seven Last Words of Christ Wiener Philharmoniker, Riccardo Muti. Recorded in concert in the Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg on 25 August 1982. Deutsche Grammophon CD. The Seven Last Words of Christ Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Frans Brüggen. Glossa CD, 2009. The Seven Last Words of Christ