UF Concert-Chorale and Toledo Choral Society to team up for Haydn’s “The Creation”

The University of Findlay Concert-Chorale will join forces with the Toledo Choral Society to present a complete performance of “The Creation” by Joseph Haydn, on Sunday, April 12 at 3 p.m. in Findlay High School’s R.L. Heminger Auditorium, 1200 Broad Avenue.
The concert will feature a 45-piece orchestra, three professional soloists and a chorus of approximately 150 singers, all under the baton of Micheal F. Anders, Ph.D., UF professor of music. The Toledo Choral Society is under the direction of Richard Napierala.
The soloists will be soprano Carol Dusdieker, an assistant professor of voice at Heidelberg University; tenor JR Fralick, a professor of voice at Baldwin Wallace University; and bass John Hines, an associate professor of music at the University of Northern Iowa.
Tickets for the performance are free but are required, and seating is extremely limited. Tickets may be reserved by calling The University of Findlay box office at (419)-434-5335.
“The Creation” (Die Schöpfung) is an oratorio by Joseph Haydn (1732- 1809) and considered by many to be the composer’s masterpiece. In all of choral music, it is second only to Handel’s “Messiah” in popularity. “The Creation” depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as described in the Book of Genesis and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” It is written for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and a symphonic orchestra, and is structured in three parts: creation days 1-4, days 5-6, and Adam and Eve living in Eden before sin.
Haydn was inspired to write a large choral work during his visits to England in 1791–1792 and 1794–1795, when he heard oratorios by George Frideric Handel, like “Messiah,” performed by large forces.
The text of “The Creation” has a long history. The three sources are Genesis, the Biblical book of Psalms, and John Milton’s Genesis epic “Paradise Lost.” The composition is considered to be the first bilingual musical composition ever published, in German and English.
The first performances in 1798 were sponsored by a group of noble citizens, and were private affairs, but hundreds of people crowded into the street around the old Schwarzenberg Palace to hear this eagerly anticipated work. Admission was by invitation only. The first public performance at Vienna’s old Burgtheater at the Michaelerplatz on March 19, 1799, was sold out far in advance.
A typical performance lasts about two hours.
“The Creation” is set for three vocal soloists, four-part chorus (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), and a large classical orchestra. The three soloists represent angels who narrate and comment on the successive six days of creation: Gabriel (soprano), Uriel (tenor), and Raphael (bass).

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