JOSEF HAYDN

 

Die Schopfung (The Creation)

 

Julia Kleiter, soprano......Gabriel, Eva

Maximilian Schmitt, tenor......Uriel

Johannes Weisser, bass......Raphael, Adam

 

RIAS Chamber Choir

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra / René Jacobs

 

Special Limited Edition with DVD:

This luxury package includes ‘Creating the Creation’: a 23’ film by Nayo Titzin on the making of the recording, René Jacobs’ discography, full texts in English, French, German.

 

It was on a visit to London in 1791 that Haydn heard several of Handel's oratorios at Westminster Abbey. Astonished by their size and power - "Handel is master of us all" he is said to have declared - he determined to write a similar work himself. Die Schöpfung was the result, though its exuberant hymning of the simple joys of life is pure Haydn. René Jacobs chooses this 'beginning' to make his major contribution on record to the celebration of the bicentenary of Haydn's death. Concert Reviews:

 

"Julia Kleiter was the exemplary soprano, who made Jacobs's extra vocal embellishments sound completely natural, and Maximilian Schmitt gave notice of a well-schooled tenor voice to watch." Financial Times, January 2009

 

"In the medium-scale acoustic of the Barbican Hall, two German groups - the 40-strong RIAS Chamber Choir and the similarly sized Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, both under the skilled hands of conductor René Jacobs - proved near ideal. Many of Haydn's delightful touches of audio-visual detail - the sun and moon, the birds and beasts - came over with unusually vivid effect...Julia Kleiter's pristine vocalism moved around the soprano part with the same delicacy and skill as Maximilian Schmitt's around the tenor's." The Guardian

 

Harmonia Mundi 2cds + DVD HMC992039-40