The Creation Joseph Haydn

For our Autumn concert we are delighted to present the choral masterpiece that is Haydn's Creation. Combining texts from Genesis, the Psalms and Milton's Paradise Lost, it tells the story of that most audacious of subjects; creation itself.

The oratorio opens with an extended instrumental passage where Haydn conjures primordial disorder and nothingness in sound; truly memorable and arresting. The work plays out almost like a musical panorama changing landscapes and scenes summoned one after the other. We meet a whole host of angels, as well as Adam and Eve, who in turn take delight in introducing all of creation, from dazzling light, billowing seas and uplifted land, to the whole animal kingdom. Listen out for the musical jokes of the great whale, leaping tiger and sinuous worm.

The architecture of Haydn's music is breath-taking, from the vast sweep of immense themes to tiny details that only emerge on closer inspection. It's also a work that does unbounded joy and celebration better than almost any other; a spiritual masterpiece for a secular age.