Haydn’s The Creation at the Bartók National Concert Hall (Müpa Budapest) by Concentus Musicus Wien and the Purcell Choir produced a memorable performance under Ádám Fischer

Emőke Baráth, Dávid Szigetvári, Ádám Fischer, Thomas E Bauer, Concentus Musicus Wien
Bartók National Concert Hall (Müpa Budapest) © Gábor Kotschy, Müpa Budapest .

Haydn The Creation; Emőke Baráth, Dávid Szigetvári,Thomas E Bauer, Concentus Musicus Wien, Purcell Choir, Ádám Fischer; Bartók National Concert Hall (Müpa Budapest)
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 1 January 2020 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Haydn’s The Creation proved the right tonic and an invigorating musical start to the New Year in Budapest

Widely considered to be Haydn’s masterpiece, The Creation (Die Schöpfung) - depicting and celebrating the creation of the world as described in the Book of Genesis - received a wondrous and telling performance at the Bartók National Concert Hall (Müpa Budapest) on New Year’s Day (1 January 2020) with Ádám Fischer on top of his game conducting the famed Austrian baroque-music ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien - co-founded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Alice Harnoncourt in 1953 and admirably led by Erich Höbarth - while the choral forces came from the Purcell Choir (celebrating this year its 30th anniversary) and still under the direction of its founder, György Vashegyi, who drills them well. What a wonderful start to their special year.

The libretto for The Creation - which was first heard at the Burgtheater, Vienna, in March 1799 receiving its London première at Covent Garden a year later - came from the pen of the Austrian nobleman, Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who also provided Haydn with the libretto for The Seasons.

In so many ways, one has to thank Handel for Haydn’s oratorios as the composer made several visits to London in the late 18th century and heard Handel’s works in all their consummate glory performed by large choral forces and, in all probability, he wanted to achieve the same result by using the musical language of a mature classical style.

One of Handel’s works that Haydn so much admired, Israel in Egypt, includes various episodes of tone painting which, perhaps, proved an inspiration to the composer in his own pervasive use of this device in The Creation particularly in the passages of the appearance of the sun and the creation of the beasts but, above all, in the overture depicting chaos before the creation.