A famous oratorio at a famous location: The Netherlands Radio Choir and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic under the direction of John Nelson are performing Joseph Haydn’s The Creation on 25 June 2010 at the Grote Kerk in Naarden. The Grote Kerk or Great Church is one of the oldest and most famous churches in The Netherlands.
Lisa Milne | SOPRANO
Lucy Crowe | SOPRANO (Eve)
Werner Güra |TENOR
Matthew Rose | BASS
Jonathan Beyer | BARITONE (Adam)
The Netherlands Radio Choir
The Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic
John Nelson | CONDUCTOR
00:00 Part I
01:44 The Representation of Chaos
07:22 In the beginning, God created heaven and earth
10:03 Now vanish before the holy beams
13:48 And God made the firmament
15:50 The marv’lous work beholds amaz’d
17:50 And God said: Let the waters
18:26 Rolling in foaming billows
22:10 And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass
22:42 With verdure clad the fields appear
27:28 And the heavenly host proclaimed the third day
27:40 Awake the harp
29:46 And God said: Let there be lights
30:22 In splendor bright
33:10 The heavens are telling the glory of God
37:07 Part II
37:18 And God said: Let the waters bring
37:44 On mighty pens
44:49 And God created great whales
46:37 And the angels struck
46:55 Most beautiful appear
51:07 The Lord is great
53:11 And God said: Let the earth bring forth
53:35 Strait opening her fertile womb
56:51 Now heav’n in fullest glory shone
1:00:14 And God created man
1:01:03 In native worth and honour
1:04:36 And God saw ev’ry thing
1:05:02 Achieved is the glorious work
1:06:20 On thee each living soul awaits
1:10:31 Achieved is the glorious work
1:13:14 Part III
1:13:23 In rosy mantle appears
1:17:21 By thee with bliss
1:26:55 Our duty we performed now
1:29:20 Graceful consort
1:37:08 O happy pair
1:37:34 Sing the Lord ye voices all
The key impulse for the composition of The Creation was experienced by Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809) on his travels through England: It was here that Haydn heard the great oratorios of Georg Friedrich Handel (1685 - 1759) and where he was given a libretto by a certain ‘Lidley’ (little else is known about the writer), which he blended with the Biblical story of paradise and the creation (Genesis 1 & 2) and John Milton’s (1608 - 1674) epic poem Paradise Lost into the text for an oratorio. Gottfried van Swieten translated this text into German for Haydn. Haydn wrote The Creation between 1796 and 1798, and is even said to have afterwards described the compositional work as a religious experience.
Although private previews of The Creation in April 1798 had already been received with enthusiasm, Haydn made some corrections to the oratorio. The public premiere then took place in March 1799 at the old Burgtheater in Vienna and was a great success. To this day, Haydn’s The Creation is a beloved classic that frequently appears on concert programs.
The three-part oratorio offers plenty of special features: Haydn had van Swieten’s German text retranslated into English and published the score of The Creation in two languages. It is considered the first bilingual composition ever. Haydn has the three archangels Gabriel (soprano), Uriel (tenor) and Raphael (baritones) narrate and at the same time comment on the material of the divine creation of the world in six days, which is significant in religious and cultural history. The six-day work is not completed by God’s seventh day of rest, as in the biblical template; rather, on the seventh day Haydn celebrates the happy coexistence of Adam and Eve in paradise before the Fall.
One of the musical highlights of The Creation is the prelude, in which the idea of a primordial chaos is set to music. Haydn, whose compositions can actually be considered prime examples of “orderly” form, has ingeniously set a cosmic chaos to music in this introduction - and thus in turn put it into musical form. The most outstanding and famous passage in the entire oratorio, however, is that of the creation of light (09:05). At the words “und es ward Licht” (and there was light), a radiant C major bursts forth, like an elemental sound event, which has captivated every listener of The Creation to this day. If you listen to the abruptly sounding C major chord, it seems as if Haydn, while composing, had glimpsed the first spark of the big bang in the depths of space.
© Idéale Audience
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5 авг 2024
