I got to know Franz Joseph Haydn through his symphonies. Although his oratorios aired on the radio occasionally, I was still too young to appreciate their excellence. It wasn’t until after I won Christopher Hogwood’s recording of “The Creation” in a drawing at one of Tower Records’ epic Presidents Day sales that I began to grasp their genius.
The location was the late, lamented Tower Classical Annex, at 6th & South Streets in Philadelphia. On Presidents Day, the doors would be propped open in an attempt to mitigate the heat generated by teeming shoppers crazed at the prospect of rare deals on labels that never went on sale. This was before the proliferation of internet outlets destroyed the industry and quashed the thrill of the chase.
The event was simulcast over Philadelphia’s classical music station of nearly 50 years, WFLN (now defunct). I quickly deduced that the time to cram the submissions box was whenever announcer Henry Varlack began to weave his way across the sales floor to retrieve a handful of slips. I won many treasures over the years (a friend of mine, who doesn’t even really listen to classical music, followed my example and won some audio equipment), but none more cherished than Hogwood’s “The Creation.” I saw the light with the chorus’ resounding “Let there be light!”
The L’Oiseau-Lyre release features Emma Kirkby, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, and Michael George, in their respective prime(s), at a time when historically-informed period instrument recordings were still gaining traction in the mainstream. It’s a set I enjoy to this day.
I can’t find the complete recording posted as a single file on YouTube, but here’s a contemporaneous concert performance, artfully illustrated by footage of our miraculous world and the wondrous creatures that inhabit it.
Happy birthday, Franz Joseph Haydn!
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