Experience the vibrant and unforgettable farewell concert of Sir Simon Rattle at the head of the Berliner Philharmoniker! To mark the end of their storied sixteen-year collaboration, the Anglo-German conductor takes us with him to pose the most elemental of questions—the story of the creation of our world—assisted by the heavenly voices of the Rundfunkchor Berlin and soprano Elsa Driesig, bass-baritone Florian Boesch, and tenor Mark Padmore. This symphonic swan song is none other than Haydn’s Die Schöpfung (The Creation), an epic oratorio that finds its inspiration in the book of Genesis, the Psalms, and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
The power of this work, one of Haydn’s greatest masterpieces, is such that, according to a friend of Haydn’s who was present at the premiere, “At that moment when light broke out for the first time, one would have said that rays darted from the composer's burning eyes. The enchantment of the electrified Viennese was so general that the orchestra could not proceed for some minutes”—an effect that Rattle, with the help of the esteemed orchestra and world-class vocalists, recreates with aplomb at the 2017 Lucerne Festival.
