Franz Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Die Schöpfung (1798) [1:40:18]
Anna Lucia Richter (soprano), Maximilian Schmitt (tenor), Florian Boesch (baritone)
Bavarian Radio Choir, Il Giardino Armonico/Giovanni Antonini
rec. live, 8-11 May 2019, Herkulessaal, Munich, Germany
ALPHA 567 [72:52 & 27:26]
Haydn, impressed by Handel’s oratorios during visits to London, set himself an important challenge on his return home. Die Schöpfung describes, in words and music, the six days of God’s labour to create the earth and the living creatures that dwell on it. The earth was, as we read in Genesis, ‘without form, and void’, and Haydn’s oratorio begins with a long orchestral introduction that seeks to evoke in music the material chaos that preceded the beginning of God’s work. Time and familiarity have inevitably diminished the impact of this extraordinary passage, but the period instruments and playing style employed here bring added pungency to Haydn’s shocking dissonances. Keening violins, playing without vibrato, pierce through the texture. Genesis goes on to tell us that ‘darkness was upon the face of the deep’, prompting God to create light. The blazing C major chord that represents this event will surely have had contemporary audiences starting from their seats, just as it will here, when heard for the first time.
As the story progresses Haydn employs his remarkable aural ingenuity and orchestral imagination. A crescendo leads to a fortissimo outburst from the timpani when thunder and lightning are mentioned, and the timpani are indeed thunderous in this performance. The rolling, foaming sea is represented by rushing semiquavers from the second violins and violas, an effect both naïve and uncannily realistic. A rising D major scale is Haydn’s means of painting the first ever sunrise, less voluptuous than Ravel’s in Daphnis et Chloé, but just as effective in its own way. The moon is not neglected either, and the ‘sons of God’ then present their near-ecstatic prayer of celebration in a chorus dear to all those who have ever sung in an amateur choir, ‘Die Himmel erzählen’, ‘The heavens are telling the glory of God’.
Such is the musical richness, and in particular the orchestral richness of this work, that in the interests of brevity I will cite only a few examples. Who can resist the nightingale and the lark as impersonated by flute and clarinet, or the comic grotesquery of the bassoons’ and double bassoon’s ‘heavy beasts’, stolidly treading upon the ground? These performers make the most of these effects on the whole, whilst admirably avoiding any unnecessary exaggeration. The orchestra Haydn required to achieve all this is considerably larger than the ensemble shown in the booklet photograph. A full complement of wind and brass, for instance, includes three trombones. The playing of Il Giardino Armonico is of virtuoso quality throughout. Nobody will be surprised to read that the Bavarian Radio Choir – 44 singers are named in the booklet – is magnificent, and placed by the recording team in a realistic balance with the orchestra.
The work requires three vocal soloists who, in the role of archangels, act as narrators in the first two parts of the work. Once Adam and Eve appear on the scene, however, two more are required. (I don’t think we need devote much time to those spoilsports who insist that the music of Part 3 is weaker than the rest.) Many performances employ, as here, the same soloists throughout. Those who know Florian Boesch from his Lieder recitals and opera appearances will not be surprised to read in his booklet biography that he ‘compels attention as a great singer-actor’. As the archangel Raphael and, later, as Adam, he brings the text to life in a way that the other two soloists, fine though they are, do not. An extended ‘zzz’ on the word ‘Insekten’ – insects – provokes a discreet titter from some members of what I assume is the live audience, the first real sign we have of their presence. They will also have been impressed by his remarkable bottom D to evoke the slithering worm. This is followed by the aria ‘Nun scheint in vollem Glanze’ (The heavens shine in full splendour), which is an object lesson, as sung here, in vocal beauty, grandeur and storytelling. Anna Lucia Richter and Maximilian Schmitt are very fine too, though their assumption of their roles inevitably seems a little pale when compared to what is by any accounts an exceptional performance from Boesch. Schmitt’s fairly noticeable vibrato when under pressure will probably trouble other listeners less than it does me. All three soloists employ a minimum of tasteful decoration when required, and all three are occasionally challenged in coloratura passages by the conductor’s rapid tempi, the closing chorus being a good example of this.
This performance of Die Schöpfung will bring pleasure to any lovers of Haydn’s music in search of a performance on period instruments. There are others, of course. I have never warmed to John Eliot Gardiner’s reading on Archiv, but that is a personal (and minority) view. I prefer Thomas Hengelbrock, and he also has the advantage of a naturally smiling assumption of the soprano roles from Simone Kermes (DHM, recorded in 2001). When thinking about older performances, one should not forget that Leonard Bernstein was a fine Haydn interpreter. His second performance, for DG, has many qualities, including rip-roaring trombones in ‘The heavens are telling’, not really authentic, perhaps, but thrilling all the same. I am very fond of Karl Münchinger’s performance with Elly Ameling and others (Decca, 1967), and if you can deal with the sadly dated sound you shouldn’t miss out on the glorious Irmgard Seefried with Igor Markevitch, also on DG and dating from 1958.
The booklet that accompanies this Alpha release is glued into the double folder that holds the discs, an uncomfortable arrangement. In it you will find a short essay on the work in three languages, plus biographical details of the performers and the full text in German, French and English. As previously mentioned, very occasional signs of an audience lead the listener to assume that the performance was recorded live; the sound is very fine indeed and the audience disturbs the listener not one bit. The booklet features an attractive logo revealing Alpha’s project – true forward planning by anybody’s standards – to record all the composer’s symphonies, and presumably many other works, in time for the 300th anniversary of his birth in 2032.
William Hedley
