Let there be light! No one had heard such music until Haydn wrote it; how the light breaks in, dispels the darkness and fills the void. Let yourself be carried away by angelic singing and strings that tell us everything will be fine. Richard Egarr leads the Gothenburg Symphony and Symphony Choir in one of history’s most powerful oratorios.
Haydn’s oratorio The Creation is a happy pill that must be experienced live. Orchestra, choir, three archangels – everything roars over the listener with the message: it will be all right! There is no fall, no serpent. All that will come later.
The composer Joseph Haydn had been knocked out by the church music in Westminster Abbey with choirs of thousands. He had visited Europe’s sharpest scientists who spoke of new planets and nebulae. It was the late 18th century. The world was suddenly not what was believed for thousands of years, but much more.
The plot itself tells how God creates the world. Who sets such a thing to music, and how? Josef Haydn threw himself into the challenge with unusual solutions. The world is created with a single note – a C. And “Let there be light!” is said only once – with a triumphant sound that makes the sky fall apart.