Haydn’s one of those incredibly prolific composers (over one hundred symphonies!) that I basically have heard nothing by. Based on my reaction to this oratorio, I’m going to have to change that. He’s (yet another) excellent candidate for one of my patented marathons, but with a hundred symphonies, I don’t know that I’m up for it at the moment. This oratorio, which clocks in just under an hour and forty minutes on two CDs, is based on the Biblical Creation narrative and also on Milton’s Paradise Lost. Haydn has the Biblical verbiage covered in recitatives and then builds the songs around selections from Paradise Lost. I really, really loved this. At almost a hundred minutes, it never drags and it ranges far and wide in terms of its scope and its emotions, which makes sense considering that it’s about the creation of the entire universe. Exuberant, vibrant praise choruses give way to thunderous, chaotic descriptions of the oceans or the mountains and then those are followed by witty, almost programmatic songs about various animals and birds and so on. The vocalists are all quite good; none of them really overdo it in a way that often bugs me in oratorios of this kind. The most beautiful song here is the soprano aria, Robed in Refreshing Green, which is about the creation of grass, trees & flowers; it’s given a great reading by Simone Kermes as Gabriel – all things considered, I think she was my favorite of the vocalists. The love duet between Adam & Eve is great as is the exultant The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God, which is the first section to feature the trio of vocalists backed by the choir and it just builds and builds and builds. I mean, I think I liked this one more than I like The Messiah; it’s just very emotionally intense, lyrically vivid and everyone on this recording, from the soloists to the large choir to the period instrument orchestra, is just on their A-game. Good sound quality too. This one’s a masterpiece of a classical album. I’m only a bit nervous that I may have set myself too high a bar for Haydn; I may have come in on his best work. 4 stars.
tl;dr – oratorio of Creation is a staggeringly great epic of deep emotional intensity and wide range; all participants on this recording bring their A-game and create a fantastic classical album. 4 stars.