{TABLE} The Creation ....... Haydn {/TABLE} SATURDAY night's NCH performance of Haydn's late oratorio, Tile Creation, got off to a tentative start.
The orchestral representation of chaos seems to present intimidating challenges to conductors, and the feeling of musicmaking neither firmly under control nor assertively enough shaped is scarcely what the composer had in mind.
Happily, the orchestral playing soon settled down. With a small string section and the unusual placement of brass and wind (trumpets at the front of the stage on the left woodwind on the right), the playing of the Orchestra of St Cecilia under Colin Block carried a lot of detailing that is often obscured, and the almost period style playing of the flutes and clarinets was one of the evening's greatest pleasures.
Block is well removed from the category of choral conductor whose musical interest lies mainly with the choir. If anything, he tends to over conduct, offering encouragement and cues all round, even where they're most unlikely to be needed.
The three vocal soloists - soprano Orla Boylan, tenor Emmanuel Lawler and bass Gerard O'Connor - didn't display that immediacy of connection with the words which might have made the conductor's task an easier one.
Boylan, after some shrillness near the start, delivered her part with buoyant clarity. Lawler was strongest in the recitatives, where the character of text being relayed was livelier than from either of his colleagues. Gerard O'Connor, not always clear in pitch and gritty of tone, seemed most comfortable when the music moved slowly.
Block secured some nicely flexible singing from his Culwick choir, but he allowed the balance of numbers (far too few men) to dictate the musical balances so that upper lines were unreasonably dominating when the singing rose above mezzo forte.
Still, there were many pleasing moments in a performance which satisfied more in parts than it did as a whole.
