Summer 2009 | Haydn's Creation

BBC Proms and Brinkburn Music Festival

Singing in the Proms was an extremely rewarding experience, a real highlight to the end of another year at Chethams.
- Chets student Oliver Farrant (age 15)

The choruses possessed a weight that never impeded movement or clarity.
(4 stars) - The Guardian (concert review, BBC Proms)

Returning to Haydn's Creation had been in the works since the end of the Deutsche Grammophon recording in October 2006 and it could not have taken place without the Chetham's Chamber Chorus. Eagerly anticipated by all was the recreation of the enormous ensemble with an even larger choir of 111 singers. This culminated in an enthusiastically received performance on the second night of the BBC Proms on 18 July 2009. The Gabrieli Consort was joined not only by Chets this time, but also by the Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir from Poland with which Gabrieli has now collaborated several times. After rehearsals in the BBC Maida Vale studios, the result was a stunningly cohesive choir despite a great range of age and experience.

It was so great a privilege to work with the Gabrieli Consort and Players under the baton of a conductor of such a high calibre as McCreesh that a few sentences can hardly do the experience justice. The opportunity to sing standing alongside some of the country’s most experienced professional musicians was incredible – the rich blend of choral and orchestral timbres, the grandure of the Royal Albert Hall, the inspiration of McCreesh’s all-pervading musicianship and the sense of mutual commitment and achievement in both rehearsal and performance made it an experience always to be remembered.
- Chets student Emily Riddle (age 17)

A week before the Proms, the Chetham's Chamber Chorus joined the Gabrieli Players for an intimate performance of the Creation at the Brinkburn Music Festival in Northumberland. The moving performance closed the 2009 festival.

The visceral appeal of the sound was enough. With two timpanists thundering away, the storm scenes were more vivid than ever, the stereophonically separated trumpets gave a new force to the light-filled moments, and the big body of strings playing without vibrato had an extraordinary nobility of sound. All this might have seemed like gilding the lily, had not the quintet of soloists been so strong, the choral singing been so focused and alive, and McCreesh so adept at combining spaciousness with springing energy. Preparing this recreation of the Creation has been a labour of love for him, and it proved to be a triumphant one.
(4 stars) - The Daily Telegraph (concert review, BBC Proms)