Haydn's The Creation - Macclesfield Singers and Symphony Orchestra

The Macclesfield Singers will perform The Creation by Haydn with three soloists from the Royal Northern College of Music and the Macclesfield Symphony Orchestra.

The Creation is the second of Haydn's oratorios and is regarded by many as one of his very finest compositions. He began composing it in the autumn of 1796 and completed it in the spring of 1798. The German version, directed by Haydn himself, was first performed on April 30, 1798 for a private audience in the Vienna palace of Count Schwartzenberg.

The first public performance was given nearly a year later, at the Burgtheater on March 19, 1799. It was on a much grander scale, with 180 performers on stage (probably 120 instrumentalists and 60 singers). The resounding success of these performances convinced Haydn to publish the work himself. The February 1800 publication of the score in both German and English made it the first large scale musical work published in two languages.