Sydney Town Hall
May 26, 2018

The depiction of the creation of light in Haydn’s The Creation was so striking in its day that it was immediately greeted with applause by audiences, and the blazing fortissimo – an explosion of choral and orchestra force – still retains its power, especially in the hands of Brett Weymark, who led the 350-strong Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and The Metropolitan Orchestra at Sydney’s Town Hall on Saturday.

Haydn’s oratorio – which Sydney Philharmonia Choirs last performed in 2016 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of HIP Japanese maestro Masaaki Suzuki – tells the story of creation as described in the book of Genesis, with a liberal dose of Milton’s Paradise Lost thrown in for some colour. Bass Jud Arthur opened proceedings on Saturday – on the heels of Haydn’s harmonically restless The Representation of Chaos – bringing a spacious clarity to his lines as the angel Raphael. He was soon joined by tenor Nicholas Jones as Uriel, following up Haydn’s blaze of light (and the pizzicati the composer was fond of describing as God lighting a match) with a bright, winning tone on the words: “And God saw that it was good.” Rounding out the...