Symphonic Chorus to perform ‘Creation’
NM Philharmonic to accompany singers on Haydn’s masterpiece
The 70 singers of the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus will tell the story of Genesis through Haydn’s “The Creation” at First United Methodist Church on Sunday.
Haydn’s choral masterpiece is an oratorio celebrating the creation of the world based on the Bible, the Psalms and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” The New Mexico Philharmonic will join the chorus, with Roger Melone conducting.
The piece began gestating in 1795. An impresario handed Haydn a poem about the birth of the world; the composer gave the work to his librettist. Haydn composed the music from 1796 to 1798.
Structured in three parts, the oratorio first deals with the creation of light, of heaven and earth, of the sun and moon and of the land, water and plants. From there it moves to the creation of animals and of man and woman. The final part describes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden portrayed as an idealized love.
“When it talks about when God said, ‘Let there be light,’ the chorus almost whispers, and then on ‘light’ we sing it as loud as possible,” baritone Stephen Lewis said. “This was uncharacteristic of the time period.”
The dynamics presage the later Romantic style, Lewis added.
“There’s almost a love duet between Adam and Eve,” he continued, “punctuated by little choral bits here and there.”
Soprano Hannah Stephens, tenor Gabriel LiboironCohen and baritone Edmund Connolly are the soloists.
The composer penned the oratorio in German; the chorus will sing the English translation by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker.
Haydn wrote “the Creation” about 10 years before his death. In 1808, friends carried him into his last performance on an armchair. According to reports, the audience broke into spontaneous applause at the coming of “light” and Haydn weakly pointed upward and said, “Not from me –– everything comes from up there.”