Live in concert 6/5/14 7pm - Haydn Creation/OAE/Rattle

[mercia]

Live from Royal Festival Hall, London, presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch, the OAE, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in a performance of Josef Haydn's great oratorio 'The Creation'

Haydn: The Creation (sung in English) - 7pm start

Part 1

Part 2

8.15 Interval music by George Frideric Handel, whose own oratorios provided Haydn with such inspiration.

8.35pm

Haydn: The Creation

Part 3

Susan Gritton (soprano)
John Mark Ainsley (tenor)
Peter Rose (baritone)

Choir of the Enlightenment
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor))

This mighty oratorio, two years in the writing, was inspired by the great Handel choral works which Haydn heard on visits to London. But it was also a heartfelt and personal religious testament by this devout and God-fearing composer who later wrote that he fell to his knees each day, praying that he be granted the strength to complete it.

Judged by many to be Haydn's masterpiece, early performances caused a sensation on account of the work's wonderfully pictorial and inventive score which famously includes representations of chaos, of sunrise, and of the whole of the natural world as it is gradually brought into being

[auralist]

Inspiration? I have read somewhere, (sorry, I can't give you a reference), that the inspiration for The Creation was the sight of the stars in the night sky, seen through the telescope of the astronomer William Herschel. Apparently Haydn visited him during his journey to England and was shown the night sky by Herschel. At that time in history, with no photographs, TV, in fact, no easily available images of the night sky and with scarcely any light pollution, this experience would have been a somewhat awe-inspiring sight, to put it mildly. Surely the massive sense of space and timelessness comes through in the music?

[mercia]

I'm sure you're quite right. The words in #1 are not mine. Welcome.