' Nobody can do everything, joke and upset, provoke laughter and deep emotion, and all at the same time, like Joseph Haydn ...' said Mozart about his friend. The Creation is an example. Haydn spent a lot of time composing it — a year and a half of work — asking God to give him the strength to carry it out. He worked on the project to the point of exhaustion, and following the premiere he fell ill for a long time — he provided the explanation that he had done so much because 'he knew his composition would last a long time'. The first public performance conducted by Haydn himself was held in Vienna at the former Burgtheater on 19 March 1799 and was a resounding success. Today, many consider this act of his religious faith to be his greatest masterpiece.
Now a reference version, this legendary recording from 1969, captured at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin during rehearsals for the concerts planned at the Berlin Philharmonic, brings together many assets. First, a sovereign Wiener Singverein supported by Karajan's breath at his most inspired and great, which also radiates on all the sections of the Berlin Philharmonic where particularly sublime winds instruments rise. Then, equally best-in-class, the rare homogeneity of the quartet is as much to report as the remarkable individual vocal quality of the soloists : Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Walter Berry, and also Fritz Wunderlich... While the recording is almost finished, it is suddenly interrupted September 17, 1966 by the accidental death of the 35-year-old tenor (a fall on a staircase at a friend's house). Recording sessions will resume in 1968 and 1969 with young tenor Werner Krenn who will replace Fritz Wunderlich mainly for recitatives. (© Qobuz / GG)