Die Schöpfung

A child of his time, Joseph Haydn saw the universe as a harmonious whole reflecting a divine origin. Meeting the astronomer William Herschel and seeing the stars and planets through a telescope must have made a great impression on him: soon after, he began writing his masterpiece Die Schöpfung for choir, orchestra and soloists.

In Die Schöpfung, Haydn expresses not only the harmonic beauty of the cosmos, but also the biblical story of creation. To him, the most miraculous moments are the creation of light on the first day and the creation of the planets on the fourth. Haydn’s use of dissonance and dramatic contrasts between choir, orchestra, and soloists allows the listener to experience the sublime, which is something that’s beyond human comprehension.