Joseph Haydn’s glorious masterpiece, The Creation, a three-part oratorio composed in 1798, depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as related in John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) and the Biblical book of Genesis. Inspired by Haydn’s trips to England where he first heard Handel’s oratorios, The Creation is widely considered Haydn’s crowning masterpiece, a work of radiant light, a joyful balm in times of trouble.

Haydn wrote that The Creation was a religious action. A voice whispered in his ear: ‘There are in this world so few happy and contented people; perhaps your labour will become a source in which the person burdened will find peace and rest.’

His own Creation wears a smile. A terrifying God is nowhere to be found in this comforting, optimistic oratorio. The prevailing mood is one of celebration, the force of light, of radiant delight in God’s creation.

Performance sung in English.