A glorious performance with great storytelling oratorio fare resulted when Sydney Philharmonia Choirs collaborated very successfully for the first time with The Metropolitan Orchestra. They were joined by soloists Taryn Fiebig (soprano), Nicholas Jones (tenor) and Jud Arthur (bass).
The Creation Hob. XXI:2 by Haydn contains the composer’s unique brand of drama and ability to conjure up environments and creatively convey rousing feelings. Conductor Brett Weymark was in expert control of grading these elements. Overplaying or singing too early in the well- paced interpretation was avoided.
In this concert, the progression of this story with its text from sources including the Bible’s Old Testament and Psalms set to music grew from a crisp, clear and subtle beginning to later climaxes with all forces of immense and awesome proportions. These memorable moments resounded through the Town Hall venue, thrilling the audience and punctuating the three sections of this work.
As the text followed the story of the earth’s creation and the production of its plants and animals, the soloists narrated all developments in styish accompanied recitatives. A full orchestral tapestry was delicately supplied in crisp and consistently clean gesture by TMO. Over this sympathetic accompaniment soloists weaved their eloquent and emphatic lines with great poise and extra colour.
Starting the oratorio’s text, Jud Arthur as Raphael sang with a wholesome tone and fine diction which were unwavering features of his commanding work in this concert. As Uriel, Nicholas Jones offered a beautifully focused clarity and lyricism to his tenor parts. Fresh from performing the role of Lucas in Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons with Willoughby Symphony Choir recently, Jones showed himself to once more be a solid Haydnesque vocal style, his pleasing tone an asset to an oratorio environment.
Taryn Fiebig in the role of Gabriel delivered successive soprano solo sections with clear rendering of Haydn’s architecture and purity of tone. This was especially the case when crowning musical textures and joyous text with upper register filigree.
The Philharmonia Choirs impressed with their agility, a fine blend with TMO to create wide textures and sudden or prolonged declamations which raised the roof on several occasions, such as in ‘Achieved is the glorious work’ to end Part Two, and Part One’s ‘Awake the harp’. More intimate pairings with each soloist’s character delighted the audience, alongside Uriel in Part One (‘Now vanish before the holy beams’) or with all three soloists to even greater effect later in this part (as in ‘The Heavens are Telling’).
The fact that the choir sang the entire oratorio from memory without the barrier of scores showed them to be quite a virtuoso vocal group. This enhanced the drama, visual impact and communicative level of the performance tenfold.
As the oratorio moves in Part Three to the description of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, so too the roles of Raphael and Gabriel shift to the bass and soprano roles of Adam and Eve. We were lucky to have the tremendous chemistry and musicality of Jud Arthur and Taryn Fiebig unite for duet moments here at the work’s end.
The duet with chorus ‘By thee with bliss…’ shone in solo voices with joy of the characters’ union, as well as having fluid interaction with the choir. The duet ‘Graceful consort…’ for Adam and Eve alone was finely balanced and full of subtleties as well as varying nuance and expression suiting both the characters’ situations as well as Haydn’s skilful text painting. In this final part of the oratorio, Nicholas Jones once more narrated and commented on the couple Adam and Eve in nicely shaped recitative which was support with even and crisp elegance as well as highly suitable momentum from the orchestra.
This was quite a thrilling concert from Sydney Philharmonia Choirs [Facebook] and The Metropolitan Orchestra [Facebook] . It was a significant and memorable interpretation of The Creation from all involved. The chance to immortalise it in a recording would be an attractive one if it arose in the future.