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Dr. James K. Bass
Music and Artistic Director

Critics Corner

Haydn oratorio evokes beauty of creation
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 9, 2002


Of all the immortal composers, Haydn had the best sense of humor. It was on abundant display Friday night when the Florida Orchestra, Master Chorale and a trio of vocal soloists gave a ravishing performance of his oratorio The Creation under Richard Zielinski at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

Haydn's writing is breathtaking throughout the long work, right from the pure sound of the Representation of Chaos introduction and the amazing C-major chord for the verse "And there was light" in the first chorus. But his score is also chock full of gloriously corny depictions of nature in all its variety, from wind, rain, thunder and hail to lions, cattle, eagles and stags.

He had a lot of fun with some of his musical sketches, such as the bleating contrabassoon that represents "heavy beasts" or the lowdown bass note for a worm.

The Creation, being performed for the first time by the orchestra and chorus, is organized in three parts. The first two parts are a biblical account of the first six days of creation, and the third part has Adam and Eve reviewing it all in the Garden of Eden.

The soloists were soprano Frances Lucey (Gabriel and Eve), tenor David Mannell (Uriel) and bass Dean Elzinga (Raphael and Adam), and they meshed well on the sublime trios.

Lucey in particular was a pleasure, as she brought a gutsy flair to her recitatives and arias, with a brightly ringing upper register that soared over the orchestra in thrilling fashion.

Zielinski maintained good balance between the rousing choruses and the numerous deft details of the orchestra writing, and he kept the momentum from slackening too much in the third part, where Adam and Eve have a series of lovely but somewhat static duets.

In a nice period touch, Mary Pendleton played the continuo part on fortepiano, as would have been the case in Haydn's day. This precursor to the modern piano was mainly heard in the recitatives.

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