Kluxen – Haydn’s The Creation

16 March 2025 @ 2:30 pm

“In the beginning…” Drawing on biblical texts from Genesis and the Psalms, as well as John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, Haydn moulded his gloriously tuneful and optimistic oratorio The Creation. Out of the chaos of darkness emerges light, heaven and earth, plants, animals, and humankind. Sung in English by a stellar cast of soloists and choristers, this milestone musical work from the Age of Enlightenment continues to enthral audiences, as joyful and life-affirming as a walk in a garden.

Sundays at the Royal Series underwritten by Jill Gibson
Concert underwritten by Jade Gan
Christian Kluxen underwritten by Sandra Lackenbauer
Amanda Forsythe underwritten by Dr. M. Nickason
Vox Humana underwritten by Julie & Harry Swain

Christian Kluxen, conductor

Now in his eighth season as Music Director of the Victoria Symphony in Canada, Christian Kluxen is also in his second season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland, following a five-year tenure as Chief Conductor of the Arctic Philharmonic in Norway.

Kluxen has been described in the press as “a dynamic, charismatic figure” who “forms the music with an impressive vertical power of emotion and a focus on the grand form”, conducting “with exemplary clarity and a heavenly warmth”. He is recognized for his sincere and transparent leadership, innovative programming and his bold, imaginative and energetic interpretations, showcased both in his MD and guest work.

Alongside his many and varied commitments with the Victoria Symphony and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, recent and forthcoming guest engagements include Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Pacific Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Odense Symphony, and Norrköping Symphony. A fruitful and inspiring relationship with the Arctic Philharmonic, whom Kluxen led for five years as Chief Conductor, resulted in numerous exhilarating performances of a wide variety of repertoire, as well as several acclaimed recordings.

Amanda Forsythe, soprano

Amanda Forsythe is a regular soloist with many highly acclaimed orchestras and baroque ensembles including Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, Academy of Ancient Music, Opera Prima, Pacific Musicworks, Early Music Vancouver, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

In 2025 she returns to Canada’s Victoria Symphony for Haydn’s Creation. Other engagements in 2024/25 include Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with San Francisco Symphony and England’s Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of Saint Luke’s’ 50^th Anniversary Concert, Ginevra in Ariodante with Boston Baroque, concerts at Tucson Baroque Festival, and a European tour of works by Carissimi and a staged production of Keiser’s Octavia with Boston Early Music Festival, with whom her performance of Euridice on BEMF’s recording of Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers won the GRAMMY AWARD for Best Opera Recording.

Her international opera career has taken her to Italy’s Rossini Opera Festival, London’s Royal Opera House, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Berlin’s Komische Oper. In the USA she has performed with Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, and many roles with Boston Early Music Festival and Boston Baroque.

Owen McCausland, tenor

Canadian tenor Owen McCausland is increasingly in international demand for operatic and symphonic engagements. His 23/24 season included a return to the Cleveland Orchestra for Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, and a debut with Vancouver Opera as Tamino in the same opera. Owen’s season also saw his debut with the Adelaide Festival (Australia) for Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Fables, after debuting the production with the Canadian Opera Company. Highlights of recent seasons include Verdi’s Otello and La fanciulla del west with the Cleveland Orchestra, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte with Pacific Opera Victoria, Strauss’ Salome with the Canadian Opera Company (COC), and the premiere of Cusson’s Fantasma. Owen has received great acclaim for his performances of Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (COC), Jaquino in Fidelio (Pacific Opera Victoria), and Lensky (Opéra de Montréal).

On the concert stage, Owen joined Orchestre symphonique de Montréal for the World Premiere of Chaakapesh – The Trickster’s Quest under the baton of Kent Nagano at Maison Symphonique, followed by a tour of the Northern Territories and a highly acclaimed documentary. Most recently, Owen premiered Frehner’s L.E.X. with Soundstreams, and performed as tenor soloist in engagements with the Grand Philharmonic Choir, Victoria Symphony, Okanagan Symphony, Symphony New Brunswick, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Tyler Duncan, baritone

With a voice described as “honey-coloured and warm, yet robust and commanding” (The Globe and Mail), baritone Tyler Duncan has performed with several leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony.

Recent notable performances include C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat with the Handel and Haydn Society, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions with the Oregon Bach Festival, and Haydn’s Creation Mass with Music of the Baroque. In the 23/24 season, he collaborated with Early Music Vancouver for Apollo e Dafne; New Jersey Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, and the Calgary Philharmonic for Handel’s Messiah; and the Oratorio Society of New York for their 150th Anniversary celebration concert featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He also joined the Amadeus Choir for Haydn’s Creation and debuted the role of Count Almaviva in Pacific Opera Victoria’s Le nozze di Figaro. Future engagements will see Mr. Duncan join The Elora Singers, Vancouver Bach Choir, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Vox Humana Chamber Choir & Friends

Vox Humana (Latin for human voice) was founded by organist and choral conductor Sarah MacDonald, now a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Music of the choir there. Starting as a project choir in the 1990s, Vox Humana has developed under the subsequent leadership of Garth MacPhee, Wendy McMillan, Brian Wismath, and David Stratkauskas, who was appointed Artistic Director in February 2022.

Vox Humana has gone from a relatively small group of no more than sixteen voices singing a cappella repertoire to a group of approximately twenty-four singers that frequently collaborates with soloists, small instrumental ensembles, other choirs, and orchestras; since 2004 they have been frequent guests of the Victoria Symphony. New music has taken a central place in Vox’s repertoire, with frequent commissions and an emphasis on Canadian composers, as well as works not yet heard in Canada.

Currently, Vox produces several programmes per season; two of these have become popular annual traditions. Vox in the Stars takes place in the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Saanich, BC. The other is a dramatic reading of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, in a concert of seasonal music, along with new carols and arrangements from local composers.

KLUXEN – HAYDN’S THE CREATION

Every year the world re-creates itself, and so with the fawn lilies just beginning to show in Beacon Hill Park, it seems a perfect time to go back to the beginning of days with Joseph Haydn’s The Creation. But there’s more to this piece of programming than simply a spring celebration and a chance to show off a host of glorious guest vocalists. For Victoria Symphony music director Christian Kluxen, it is also an opportunity to reflect on how far the orchestra has come under his supervision, and the steps that they’ve taken together to get here.

“We have done a lot of the Classical repertoire because it fits the size of the orchestra very well, but it is also repertoire that will develop an orchestra,” Kluxen says, noting that without the larger ensembles and lusher orchestration of the Romantic era, every little detail is crucial. “It’s so transparent and clear in its language that you have to be very straight and clear in what you want to communicate. So this has benefitted the orchestra immensely, to play the Classical repertoire: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and so forth. And the road to playing a very, very big Classical piece, a dramatic piece like The Creation, is that you have to have found your common style. You have to have that settled if you want to dive into a great masterpiece like The Creation, so I thought it was time for us to do something like that.”

Even with the Victoria Symphony sounding as good, or better than it ever has—and few would dispute that claim—The Creation is a massive undertaking. Over the course of approximately one hour and 45 minutes, it depicts the emergence of the Earth from formless chaos; its population by the beasts of the sea, the air, and the land; and finally a look at life in the Garden of Eden, up to but not including the intervention of a certain devilish snake. Five major roles are featured, each delivering a pair of arias; in keeping with performance practice during Haydn’s lifetime, the angels Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael are here played by soprano, tenor, and bass, respectively, with the soprano and bass soloists returning in the third act to tackle the roles of Eve and Adam.

We’ll hear a collection of “out of this world soloists”, according to Kluxen, and his casting bears this out: the legendary Amanda Forsythe will be joined by tenor Owen McCausland and bass Tyler Duncan, along with Victoria’s own Vox Humana Chamber Choir and friends.

Duncan, for one, can’t wait.

“It’s one of the great oratorios,” says the Prince George–born bass, whose relationship with The Creation started in 1996, when he sing Adam with Bruce Pullan and the Vancouver Bach Choir. “It’s not the first oratorio and it’s not the last, but what Haydn did with this art form is incredible. In the beginning of the piece there’s this representation of chaos and the creation of the world and life, which is the whole basis of the oratorio, and he was using a compositional style that was previously unheard of.”

As for playing both Raphael and Adam in this production, Duncan gives all the credit to the creator—meaning, in this case, Haydn himself. “He’s done all the work for me,” the singer contends. “The Raphael text is much more descriptive and prophetic, in a way. He is describing the things that formed: the animals, the flora, the fauna. And Haydn writes it in a very declamatory style; at times it’s heroic. But when you switch to Adam, you are not only singing in a more lyrical style—there’s longer lines, there’s more spinning out of these beautiful rippling lines—and you’re also singing, for the most part, in duet with Eve, the second piece of the creation puzzle. So, yeah, Haydn does the work for you.”

Both Duncan and Kluxen stress that although The Creation—which here will be sung in English, using conductor Paul McCreesh’s emendation of Gottfried van Swieten’s original bilingual libretto—is a Biblical story, it is not only for Christian believers.

“Beyond all the God talk,” the conductor contends, “there is a very pure, very human quality that we can all benefit from absorbing.”

“You don’t necessarily have of be part of the club to deliver the message,” says Duncan, and he goes on to point out that for something written in 1798 The Creation delivers a surprisingly factual interpretation of the origin of life. That chaotic introduction? It’s the Big Bang in sound. And, as van Swieten states, the first animals really did evolve in the sea before venturing onto land and into the air.

“These are amazing things that happened,” Duncan says, “and they did happen. No matter what you believe, on the scientific side of things these things happened. Like, all of a sudden there were fish! Of course that didn’t happen in a day—or maybe it did, but I wasn’t there, so I can’t ask.”

He laughs, and then gets serious when addressing why The Creation transcends time, genre, and religion.

“We are not a part of that time; we are not a part of the world that that music lived in,” he explains. “But it’s still alive today for a reason, and that’s because it is great. It’s an incredible sonic experience, and it’s also extremely entertaining. Listening to great singers do these incredible things that Haydn wrote is just a joy.”

Notes by Alex Varty

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732—1809)
Die Schöpfung (The Creation)
Part 1 The representation of Chaos
The First Day
The Second Day
The Third Day
The Fourth Day
Part II The Fifth Day
The Sixth Day
Part III Adam and Eve in Eden

Haydn: The Creation | Nederlands Kamerkoor, Concerto D’Amsterdam & Klaas Stock

Details

Date:: 16 March 2025
Time:: starts at 2:30 pm
Event Category:: Sundays at the Royal

Organizer

: Victoria Symphony

Venue

: Royal Theatre
: 805 Broughton St + Google Map
Phone: 250.386.6121

Concert Credits

Concert Programme

Haydn
The Creation

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