Soprano Lydia Teuscher tells Fine Music: “Well, Haydn said that he had never been more religious and believing than at the time he wrote this piece. Nevertheless, this does not mean that it would be less important, or by any means in negative evaluation, as a beautiful piece of music created by God which we could appreciate.”
“So this should be seen as a work of an idealistic arcadia concept, rather than Christian work. The text is indeed based on the Old Testament, but is even more affected by Milton and it does not mention the loss of paradise,” says Maestro Suzuki. “I think this work should be placed very close to the Christian work, but it is still arguable whether it really is. So is the work sacred or secular? Fine Music caught up with Masaaki Suzuki and Lydia Teuscher to ask this and more. It pledges light, strength and healing… words that permeate religious and new age thought. It is he who warns of man’s fall from grace, but with delicacy and subtlety, for this work is a promise of redemption. Uriel means God is my light and his name is woven into the setting of the text. They are humans and they are lovers as first introduced by Uriel (Allan Clayton in this production) and then expounded in their beautiful love duet (with Neal Davies as Adam and Lydia Teuscher as Eve). ‘Part three’ is the first day in the life of Adam and Eve. The first two, telling of the six days of Creation, are narrated by the three archangels Gabriel (Soprano), Uriel (Tenor) and Raphael (Bass). The libretto, taken from the Bible’s book of Genesis and Milton’s Paradise Lost, was arranged and translated into German by Haydn’s long-time collaborator Baron Gottfried van Swieten. This month, Sydneysiders will have the opportunity to experience the work when the SSO performs it under the baton of renowned Japanese conductor Massaki Suzuki. In fact, it created such a buzz at its premiere in 1798 that performances were sold out and Police were hired for crowd control.įor the 21st century listener it remains one of Haydn’s crowning achievements – every bit as spectacular and uplifting as Handel’s Messiah.
Just like no print can compare to standing in the Sistine Chapel and looking up at the ceiling no CD can capture the wonder of hearing Haydn’s Creation or Die Schöpfung performed live. They are timeless, popular from the day they were conceived, and often referenced by contemporaries. These works, in depicting the humanistic aspect of Creation, have the facility to transcend the religious. Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam can only be described as splendid and Haydn’s oratorio is equally so. The biblical story of Creation might be one of the most contested but it is also one of the most magnificently depicted in human history.