HAYDN'S "CREATION" - NOVEMBER, 2009

At our Autumn Concert in the Town Hall on 28 November we performed Haydn’s great oratorio “The Creation”, most fitting in this, the composer’s 200^th anniversary year.  We had a fine trio of soloists in Catherine Fish (soprano), Ben Thapa (tenor) and Marcus Farnsworth (baritone).  Marcus Huxley (organ) and The Elgar Sinfonia provided excellent accompaniment, as always. 

 Haydn’s music is endlessly inventive, and never more so than in this work.  The orchestral word-painting is superb, and the sheer strength of the choruses is really impressive - they are a joy to sing.  The three soloists - all with big voices - sang powerfully or sensitively as required, in solo arias and in ensemble.  There is much of the bel canto here and some wonderful coloratura passages, especially for the soprano.  One wonders whether Haydn might have been accounted a great opera composer too, had he been served with the superb plots and librettos of a Beaumarchais or a Da Ponte, as was Mozart.

 The concert was well attended, always of course heartening to see, and the audience applause at the end was enthusiastic and prolonged.  Our conductor Geoff Weaver is to be congratulated on an outstanding performance.

Peter Knott