• Philippa Hyde soprano
• Joseph Cornwell tenor
• Stephen Varcoe bass
• Psalmody & Friends
• Essex Baroque Orchestra
• directed by Peter Holman

Haydn’s Oratorio The Creation was first performed in public in Vienna on 19 March 1799. The work was inspired by the English oratorio tradition deriving from Handel, and the libretto, deriving mostly from the Authorized Version of Genesis and Milton’s Paradise Lost, was given to the composer before he left London for the last time in 1795.

This performance marks the 200th anniversary of Haydn’s death on 31 May 1809, and is a rare opportunity to hear a historically informed account of his masterpiece with an orchestra of Classical instruments and a choir similar in size to that used for the composer’s last public appearance, in Vienna on 27 March 1808. It uses the English text that appeared in the original full score, published in 1800. Haydn regarded it as equally important as the German version, prepared by Baron van Swieten, and it has been used, with some modifications, from the first London performances in 1800 to the present day.