Haydn: The Creation

It took a bold composer at the height of his powers to set God’s Creation to music. Haydn, who seized the subject with gusto, directed his apparently inexhaustible imagination and every color of the late 18th-century orchestra to create one of the greatest of all oratorios. Paul McCreesh, the musicians of his Gabrieli Consort and Players, and an ace solo team follow The Creation’s original English-language edition of 1800, and revel in its mix of words from the Old Testament and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Together, they unlock the score’s biblical and human drama, warmth, and wit. Haydn’s famous depiction of the first light blazes with spine-tingling intensity, setting the tone for a performance hallmarked by its intoxicating blend of vigorous brushstrokes and countless fine details of articulation, phrasing, and tempo.