Alfred Hickling 

A heavenly Haydn

Northern Sinfonia/ Pommier City Hall, Newcastle Rating: ****
  
  


Today people stand up for Handel's Hallelujah Chorus; but when Joseph Haydn first heard it he simply burst into tears. Nothing overwhelmed the 60-year-old composer more on his first visit to Britain than the scale of its choral tradition. He responded with The Creation, an incredible organisation of orotund, English oratorio into lean, classical form, which became the supreme masterpiece of the composer's old age.

The piece not only describes God's creation of the world, but seems to summarise every known musical development up to that point: from gentle, Purcellian odes to dramatic, operatic recitative and the many-headed monster of the Handelian chorus. Haydn even managed to predict the future: the disturbing, chromatic instability of his evocation of chaos "without form and void" is almost an incursion into Strauss's tone-poem territory.

From this troubled darkness the Northern Sinfonia and Chorus found magnificent illumination. After a few slightly hesitant entrances the chorus galvanised superbly for the supernova - the devastating treble forte chord that explodes at the conclusion of the phrase "let there be light" - one of the most violent pieces of word-painting ever written.

The Creation's communal emphasis on choral intervention would have been a shock to Viennese audiences at the end of the 18th century, and remains surprising today. For it to work, however, the chorus needs to maintain a dialogue with three soloists who not only play angels but must sound pretty heavenly, too. Here the Sinfonia had three singers absolutely suited to the period.

At some point, God created a cross between a nightingale and a gazelle and installed it in Nancy Argenta's larynx. Her brilliant, supple tone bubbled effortlessly through the intimidating coloratura of her role. The profound, mellow gravity of 28-year-old bass Stephan Loges's voice seems to be the result of a miraculous growth spurt that is still waiting for the rest of his body to catch up. Mark Padmore proved he is simply the best baroque tenor in the business. The Northern Sinfonietta's former artistic director, Jean-Bernard Pommier, conducted with the ease of a man enjoying the company of old friends. If God was in the hall, he must surely have smiled and seen that it was good.

 

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