Saturday 2 June 2018

7.30pm

(concert ends 9.40pm approximately)

St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds

Haydn: The Creation

Sena Larard soprano

Christopher Turner tenor

Graeme Danby bass

Bury Bach Choir

Prometheus Orchestra

Philip Reed conductor

Composed over a period of 18 months during 1796 and 1798, and first publicly performed in 1799, Haydn's oratorio The Creation is a vivid, charming and uplifting account of the seven days of Creation as depicted in the Book of Genesis and Milton's Paradise Lost. Scored for full orchestra, chorus, and three soloists, the work begins with an orchestral depiction of chaos in the time before the world was formed. Then comes the spine tingling ‘and there was light’ (the Big Bang); more than 200 years later, the effect is still shockingly powerful and exciting. As the days of Creation unfold, Haydn finds beautiful and inventive ways of representing the newly formed world and its various creatures, before leading us to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The defining work of Haydn’s career, The Creation expresses its composer’s intense faith and reveals his compositional skill in a work of seamless perfection. The varied musical techniques Haydn uses to depict the grandeur of the first days of existence are brilliant, magnificent and colourful. Though Mozart died before Haydn composed The Creation, his much younger friend and colleague said of Haydn that he ‘alone has the secret both of making me smile and of touching my innermost soul’.

We are delighted to welcome back to Bury St Edmunds soprano Sena Larard and tenor Christopher Turner, together with Graeme Danby, for what will be an unmissable performance of Haydn’s choral masterpiece.

Early booking for reserved seats is recommended.

Booking opens 19 February 2018

Tickets £25 (reserved), £20 and £15 (unreserved)

Early booking discount £1 off all tickets booked by 5 May 2018