Music of the Baroque opens season with a vivid, exhilarating “Creation”

On Wednesday night Dame Jane Glover will lead Music of the Baroque in a 15-minute concert cruise down the Chicago River recreating the famous circumstances of Handel’s Water Music premiere on the Thames.

That much-hyped media event has captured ample preseason publicity. But it was the first program of MOB’s 54th season, heard Tuesday night at the Harris Theater, that offered the more substantial musical rewards with Haydn’s The Creation.
The first of Haydn’s two late celebrated oratorios (The Seasons followed three years later), The Creation paints nothing less than God’s epic creation of the world from a dark, mysterious void to the bestowing of light, the birth of earth’s natural phenomena and manifold creatures, and the dawn of Adam and Eve. (In keeping with Haydn’s beneficent view, the oratorio ends before the Fall puts a damper on things.)

Even with his voluminous ground-breaking works across genres, The Creation finds the older Haydn exploring new territory—as with the harmonically unmoored representation of “Chaos” in the opening section, the ingenuity of the wind writing, and free mixing of music for soloists and chorus.

Glover led the MOB forces Tuesday night in a dynamic, richly colored and often exhilarating account of Haydn’s oratorio.

Under the British conductor’s vital, attentive direction not a single bar felt slack or routine, nor any scoring detail overlooked. The “Chaos” opening unfolded patiently, segueing from atmospheric mystery to a blazing creation of light with the chorus in full cry. Haydn’s originality came through with bracing strength and character as did the essential spiritual warmth of the composer’s inspiration.

This Creation performance benefited enormously from a first-class trio of soloists.

With the most singing to do, Brandon Cedel was primus inter pares. His imposing bass-baritone brought patriarchal gravitas to the oracular passages yet he also invested his lyrical arias with tender expression. Singing with relaxed authority, Cedel had great fun underlining the musical onomatopoeia, as with his relishing the subterranean bass note depicting the worm.

At the other end of the spectrum, Joélle Harvey’s rich-toned, flexible soprano handled Haydn’s arias and demanding coloratura passages with polished ease. Her lilting rendition of “With verdure clad” was an evening highlight, even with fitful bronchial obbligato from the audience. In addition to her spotlit arias, Harvey’s top line was a consistent pleasure in the ensembles, her soprano soaring over the chorus.

Aaron Sheehan made an impressive MOB debut, displaying an attractive tenor with strength as well as tonal refinement. Like his colleagues, Sheehan blended technical ease and communicative engagement, even with the fitfully awkward text. (The distancing of the German version can be a plus.)

Part Three of The Creation can feel like an anti-climax with the Adam and Eve music (and text) having some twee moments. Yet Cedel and Harvey made a charming primordial couple. Their contrasting timbres blended graciously and the duo’s engaging stage presence overrode any potential awkwardness.

The MOB Chorus was up to its usual elevated standard under Andrew Megill, contributing daunting power beyond their numbers in the big moments and bringing clarity and vivacity to the fugal choruses. “The heavens are telling” was especially thrilling Tuesday night.

A Covid wave in the MOB orchestra ranks this past week meant some subbing and retooling. Even a couple players short, the musicians delivered Haydn’s remarkable score with striking commitment, color and nuance, responding to Glover’s sterling advocacy by bringing out all the painterly felicities of Haydn’s writing.