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Further choral works to enjoy after listening to Haydn’s The Creation
Acouple of years after the first performance of The Creation, Haydn and Gottfried van Swieten put their heads together for another oratorio: The Seasons.
The ferocious minor-key orchestral introduction and opening recitative tell us we’ve joined things at the tail-end of winter, before the chorus ‘Come, gentle spring’ puts us at ease. Thereafter, we head through the course of the year, all depicted with typical Haydn-esque charm and character. (Gabrieli Consort & Players/paul Mccreesh Signum SIGCD480).
Another close contemporary of The Creation is Christus am Ölberge (Christ of the Mount of Olives), composed in 1803 by Haydn’s most notoriously recalcitrant pupil, Beethoven. The only oratorio he ever wrote, it is rarely performed today, but does have its moments – not least ‘So ruhe denn mit ganzer Schwere’, a serene duet for the Seraph (soprano) and Jesus (tenor). (Luba Orgonasova, Plácido Domingo et al; Deutsches Symphonie-orchester Berlin/kent Nagano Harmonia Mundi HMG501802).
If Beethoven was sceptical about his teacher’s advice, Mozart’s admiration knew no bounds. His Old Testament-based cantata, David Penitente,
which preceded the older composer’s Creation by just over a decade, may sound strangely familiar to some listeners – much of it the music is taken from Mozart’s better known Great Mass in C minor. Do, though, keep a keen ear out for the closing ‘Chi in Dio Sol Spera’, in which the chorus is briefly joined by some splendid virtuoso vocal acrobatics from the three soloists. (RAI Turin Orchestra & Chorus/ Mario Rossi Archipel ARPCD0359).
Popular in its day, but fairly neglected thereafter, Spohr’s 1826 oratorio Die letzten Dinge (The Last Judgement) is an often big-boned affair that culminates in a magnificent closing chorus, ‘Gross und wunderbarlich sind deine Werke’ (Great and marvellous are thy works). (Kammerchor Stuttgart/frieder Bernius Carus CARUS83294).
Finally, for a completely different take on a creation theme, try Jón Leifs’s Edda – Part I: The Creation of the World. Completed in 1939, the Icelander’s mighty choral beast depicts ‘Sea’, ‘Earth’, ‘Sky’ and much besides in all manner of imaginative and exciting ways. Haydn would surely have approved. (Reykjavicensis Schola Cantorum/bäumer BIS BISSACD1350).
Leifs depicts ‘Sea’, ‘Earth’ and ‘Sky’ in all manner of imaginative ways