CREATION This Friday and Saturday at ISO!

Though written in the very early 19th century, Haydn's magnificent CREATION pays homage to the monuments of Baroque choral-orchestral masterworks that came before it. Through such might choruses as "Awake the Harp," "The Heavens Are Telling" and "Fulfilled At Last the Glorious Work," Haydn creates a hybrid mix of ebullient melodic panache and a sturdy contrapuntal framework.

With texts drawn from the book of Genesis and fragments of Milton's Paradise Lost, Haydn's masterpiece is a tour de force of programmatic writing ("The Representation of Chaos" which opens the work, the positively radiant orchestral "sunrise," or the bass recitative which catalogs the creation of living beings...down to the lowly worm). Coupled with one joyous chorus after the next, it's a work that sets the stage for beloved works of Mendelssohn, Brahms and others that were to follow.

Friday Feb 18 and Saturday Feb 19 at Hilbert Circle Theater, with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.