Utwory na płycie:

• 1a Die Vorstellung des Chaos
• 1b Nun schwanden vor dem heiligen Strahle
• 2a Und Gott machte das Firmament
• 2b Mit Staunen seht das Wunderwerk
• 3a Es sammle sich das Wasser
• 3b Rollend in schäumenden Wellen
• 4a Es bringe die Erde Gras hervor
• 4b Nun beut die Flur das frische Grün
• 5a Und die himmlischen Heerscharen
• 5b Stimmt an die Saiten, ergreift die Leier
• 6a Es sei'n Lichter an der Feste
• 6b In vollem Glanze
• 6c Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes
• 7a Es bringe das Wasser
• 7b Auf starkem Fittige
• 8a Und Gott schuf große Walfische
• 8b In holder Anmut steh'n
• 8c Der Herr ist groß
• 9a Es bringe die Erde hervor
• 9b Gleich öffnet sich der Erde Schoß
• 9c Nun scheint in vollem Glanze
• 10a Und Gott schuf den Menschen
• 10b Mit Würd' und Hoheit angetan
• 11a Und Gott sah jedes Ding
• 11b Vollendet ist das große Werh
• 12a Aus Rosenwolken
• 12b Von deiner Güt', o Herr und Gott
• 13a Nun ist die erste Pflicht erfüllt
• 13b Holde Gattin!
• 14a O glücklich Paar
• 14b Singt dem Herren alle Stimmen!

After fi nishing the oratorio version of his Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross in 1796, Haydn was ready: he took up work on the “Creation” and had fi nished the piece by 1798. Even during the rehearsals for the fi rst performance on the 30th of April in Vienna, which was exclusively for invited, noble guests, the musicians reported “the delights of this musical work, so exceptional and never heard before […], that news of it spread through the entire city like wild fi re and expectations swelled to bursting point”. Around 150 participants played and sang under Haydn’s baton, including the singer Christine Gerardi – the only woman on stage – with her “light and youthful soprano voice, beautifully shaped, expressive phrases and especially her fi ery eyes”, alongside Ignaz Saal “with velvet might” as Raphael and Matthias Rathmayer as Uriel. Both the audience and the music critics were captivated. The Viennese correspondent of the “Neuen teutschen Merkurs” [New German Mercury] reported back to Weimar that the music of the “Creation” had a “power of depiction which surpasses all imagination; one is swept up, sees the elements storm, sees it become light, the fallen spirits sink deep into the abyss; one trembles at the rolling thunder, joins in the jubilations of the heavenly host. The sun rises, the joyful praise of the birds rises to meet it; the green plants sprout from the earth, the cool stream tinkles silvery, and rising from the deeps, Leviathan sports in the foaming waves.”