H AY D N ’ S
C R E AT I O N
CONTENTS Program 3 Welcome 5 About the Music 6 The Words 12 About the Artists 19 Symphony Chorus 22 Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra 23 About Us 24 Our Supporters and Partners 26 Next at Sydney Philharmonia Choirs 28
H AY D N ’ S
CR EAT I O N ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY DEBORAH CHEETHAM FRAILLON and MATTHEW DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here† JOSEPH HAYDN The Creation Part 1 Overture – Representation of Chaos The First Day – ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’ The Second Day – ‘And God made the firmament’ The Third Day – ‘Let the waters…be gathered together’ The Fourth Day – ‘Let there be lights…’
Part 2 The Fifth Day – ‘Let the waters bring forth…’ The Sixth Day – ‘Let the earth bring forth…’
INTERVAL Part 3 In the Garden of Eden
Brett Weymark conductor Celeste Lazarenko soprano (Gabriel, Eve) Andrew Goodwin tenor (Uriel) Michael Lampard baritone (Raphael, Adam) Yvette Leonard mezzo-soprano Symphony Chorus | Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra Saturday 4 July 2026 at 1:00 pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall † 100 Minutes of New Australian Music 2020 Commission Estimated durations: 2 minutes, 40 minutes, 40 minutes, 20-minute interval, 30 minutes The performance will conclude at approximately 3:20pm Pre-concert talk: Geobiologist Dr Maxwell Lechte and 2026 Conducting Fellow Naomi Hnat in conversation with 2MBS Fine Music presenter Tom Forrester-Paton at noon in the Northern Foyer, supported by 2MBS Fine Music.
HALLELUJAH! JOIN OUR CHRISTMAS CHOIR It’s time to sign up for this year’s Christmas Choir, performing Handel’s Messiah at the Sydney Opera House, conducted by Elizabeth Scott. No auditions. Singers of any ability welcome. Join us! Weekly evening rehearsals begin Thursday 29 October Concerts on Friday 11 December | 8:00 pm Saturday 12 December | 1:00 pm Sunday 13 December | 1:00 pm
Register before Monday 19 October www.sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/ christmas-choir-2026 SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2025 • 4
Welcome PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS
If you were to ask me whether I thought Haydn was a great composer, I would simply take the score of The Creation and point out the many extraordinary moments in this miraculous work of genius. Joseph Haydn more or less invented the symphonic genre – writing more than a hundred symphonies that provided models for the composers who followed. But The Creation contains symphonic music of such profound quality that it surpasses even the symphonies. If Haydn had written only the opening depiction of Chaos or the awakening of dawn in the translucent key of E major with three flutes at the top of Part III, he would be remembered as a master of his craft. Then there’s the inventive, witty and energising writing for the chorus. Drawing on his many mass settings as well as his operas, Haydn adopts strategies from strict counterpoint to the most dramatic freedom. The final chorus could have been penned by Handel but the opening with its blinding C major chord for ‘light’ is the result of pure imagination and dramatic inspiration. The equally wonderful writing for solo voices shows Haydn revelling in his text – describing the wonders of the natural world in arias, duets and trios that range from operatic virtuosity to folksong simplicity. Listen for the worm! The harmonic daring of the opening would influence composers right up to Wagner and his famous Tristan chord. The
dramatic form would influence composers such as Mendelssohn in his shaping of Elijah. The representation of nature was a model for Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. But it is the combination of these elements that has dazzled audiences from the outset. Choirs love singing The Creation and orchestral players revel in its complexity and brilliance. I was first exposed to this work as a boy when the Combined Primary School Choirs sang ‘The heavens are telling’ in this very hall. I found a battered cassette recording of the whole work at the Stanton Library and borrowed it so many times they should have just given it to me! Since then, I’ve been lucky to return to The Creation time and time again, and today we’re all thrilled to share this tremendous work by one of the greatest composers who ever lived. Brett Weymark OAM Artistic and Music Director
We acknowledge and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country we rehearse, sing and work, and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. Our voices bring to life the songs of many cultures and countries, from across the ages, in a spirit of sharing, learning and understanding. The ancient customs and cultures of this land inspire us to create harmony – in music and in our society. SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2025 • 5
In 1808, the year before his death, Joseph Haydn (seated in the foreground) attended his final concert, a gala performance of The Creation in the hall of the Old University, Vienna, directed by composer Antonio Salieri and attended by the Viennese elite. His biographer Georg August Griesinger recalled: ‘Haydn was brought to the sound of trumpets and drums, accompanied by many noble art lovers of Vienna, on an armchair in the centre in front of the orchestra. Sitting between his revered Princess Esterhazy and a few virtuosos, surrounded by artists, students, ladies and gentlemen of the first rank and an extremely numerous society from the educated classes, Haydn received – from everybody who could approach him – the most sincere evidence of high esteem, of the most tender care for his powerless old age, and of the joy that it was granted to him to experience on that day.’ (Print from a lost miniature by Balthasar Wigand)
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The Creation I was there and I can assure you that I have never experienced anything like it. The flower of Vienna’s literary and musical life assembled in the hall… Deep silence, scrupulous attention and, I might say, religious devotion prevailed from the moment the violins started. Giuseppe Carpani reporting on the first performance of The Creation (1798)
BEETHOVEN-HAUS, BONN
To hear The Creation is to repeat what its first audiences experienced: they were bowled over by this masterpiece of Haydn’s last years. Few works at any time have had such universal appeal. The first performances, in Vienna, were semiprivate, and word-of-mouth created such excitement that by the time of the first public performance in 1799 police had to be engaged to control the crowds. The Creation brought in the biggest box office returns in the history of Vienna, and almost immediately conquered a Europe divided by the French Revolutionary wars, uniting all classes and religions. By 1798, Haydn had emerged from his years of relative obscurity in Eisenstadt and Eszterháza, to become the most famous composer in Europe. The symphonies written for his London visits in the 1790s had consolidated his fame. The Creation would reach beyond musical connoisseurs to a wider public. Haydn had been contemplating a major oratorio project ever since he was deeply impressed by performances in London of Handel’s oratorios. As Haydn’s biographer Karl Geiringer wrote: ‘He found a whole nation aroused by compositions offered in monumental performances.…He desired
intensely to write, as Handel had written, works meant for a whole nation.’ The impact of this oratorio was due to its text as well as to Haydn’s music, and in this the adaptor of the libretto, Baron Gottfried van Swieten (1734–1803), played a crucial part. While in England, Haydn had been offered a libretto entitled The Creation. The text was an adaptation of parts of Milton’s Paradise Lost with passages from the Book of Genesis and the Psalms, and it had probably been intended for Handel. Swieten was approached by Haydn to translate the libretto into German and at once saw its possibilities. Baron Swieten was a diplomat, politician and man of letters who had played a central role in Austrian culture during the reforming administration (1780–90) of Emperor Joseph II, as the minister in
Engraved portrait of Baron van Swieten (c. 1790)
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PORTRAIT ATTRIB. TO MATHER BROWN AFTER JOHN HOPPNER, 1792
When he died in 1809 at the age of 77, JOSEPH HAYDN was Europe’s celebrity composer – more famous than Mozart or even Beethoven. He’d spent much of his working life in the splendid but remote estate of Eszterháza (a kind of rural Versailles), where, he famously said, he was cut off from the world and ‘forced to become original’. Despite this isolation, he became well known for his symphonies and string quartets and was widely commissioned. Today he is considered the ‘father of the symphony’, which he developed as a genre, adding instruments to the orchestra and experimenting with the number and order of movements. Haydn’s commitments to the Esterházy princes meant that he rarely travelled, but between 1791 and 1795 he made two hugely successful visits to London, which was still a centre of musical fashion, just as Handel had found it 80 years earlier. He returned home with a lot of money and a libretto for The Creation in his luggage, as well as the inspiration of the English oratorio tradition as established by Handel.
charge of education and censorship. He was also a great musical enthusiast, with a deep love for and knowledge of the music of Handel and even the then forgotten J.S. Bach. It was Swieten who commissioned from Mozart revisions to Handel’s Messiah, Alexander’s Feast and Acis and Galatea for performances in Vienna. The Baron gave his adaptation of the text to Haydn with intelligent suggestions for its musical treatment, many of which the composer followed. Swieten also devised the text so that both the English and the German versions could, as far as possible, be sung to the same notes. It was the first large-scale musical work to be composed and published with a bilingual text. Swieten and Haydn clearly expected The Creation to be performed in England, and they would have expected the oratorio to be performed in English to an Englishspeaking audience. For a long time, so-called ‘weaknesses’ in the English singing text were attributed to Swieten’s imperfect English, with the assumption that the Baron had made his own back-translation of the German into English, and there were many attempts to improve on the English text and its wordunderlay. But more recent scholarship, including the work of Neil Jenkins in 2005, has demonstrated that the English text almost certainly follows the original (lost) model that Haydn had brought back from England, and that its peculiarities reflect 18th-century conventions. The edition used in this performance adopts the original English words as set by Haydn. Swieten’s adaptation of the text reveal him completely in tune with the wishes and dreams of the most aware of his contemporaries. The fundamental idea could be described as ‘pantheistic humanitarianism’ – the belief that the true nature of God is expressed not in the doctrines of the Church but in the manifestations of created nature itself, and that humanity should be propagated in
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God’s image, promoting the brotherhood of man. This is basically a Masonic message. Both Mozart and Haydn were Masons, and Swieten was at least a sympathiser. Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute had also celebrated the Brotherhood of Man. Music which ‘unites in true friendship men who otherwise would have remained strangers’ took its part in preaching Enlightenment humanitarian ideals, even while Austria was under the conservative regime of the Emperor Franz, who had banned Freemasonry. The message was to be proclaimed once again in Beethoven’s setting of Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’, which crowns his Ninth Symphony. To this important subject Haydn devoted his most painstaking care, composing slowly but in a state of great excitement. He employed the largest orchestra for which he had ever written, and put to good purpose his years of symphonic experimentation with the orchestra of Prince Esterházy. In the conception of the work and the choral writing, Haydn had the example of Handel, whose first impact on him, he confessed, was to make him feel that he had known nothing up to that moment, and had been put back to the beginning of his musical studies! Nevertheless, the influence of Handel on The Creation has often been exaggerated. It is true that the great choruses which conclude each part have the structural magnificence of Handelian double-fugues, but the basic musical language is Haydn’s – symphonic, and based on the drama of tonality and rhythm. There was not much to be learnt from the Italian oratorio tradition, which gave the chorus only a minor role, but Haydn’s real apprenticeship for The Creation, apart from his symphonies, was his impressive series of masses, especially the ones he was writing annually during the late 1790s – the Nelson Mass, Theresa Mass, and Mass in Time of War among them. But whereas in
The Creation was the first large-scale musical work to be published with a bilingual text. (Title page from the first edition, 1800)
those masses Haydn’s musical imagination was guided (even limited) by the requirements of a liturgical text, in The Creation he had sovereign musical freedom. He was also composing, almost for the first time, in his vernacular German, and his treatment of words both in recitative and aria had a directness of musical speech almost ‘popular’ in tone. Haydn, like Mozart in The Magic Flute, often approached the style of the German Lied. Much of The Creation is simple and songlike, warm and humane, as befits the almost naive innocence of some of the text. The great achievement was to build such unpretentious material into satisfying largescale structures.
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CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART (CC0 1.0)
The Creation of Light (1824), illustration for Milton’s Paradise Lost by John Martin
The Music The representation of Chaos with which the work opens is really most un-chaotic. It achieves its impression of limitless space (Haydn was very interested in the new discoveries of astronomy) through distant modulations and the cancellation of implied tonality by contradictory harmonies. The sense of chaos depends on the background of Classical musical order, as Haydn explained: ‘I avoided the resolutions that you would most readily expect. The reason is, that there is no form in anything yet.’ Haydn followed Swieten’s instructions for the first moment of The Creation: The darkness can decrease gradually, but enough should remain to make the instantaneous transition to light felt strongly. The words ‘Let there be light’ etc. should be sung only once. But Haydn’s musical imagination transcends the Baron’s suggestions. He has the chorus sing God’s command, ‘Let there be light’, unaccompanied. In the phrase ‘And there was light,’ at the word ‘light’, there is an instantaneous transition from C minor to a loud C major chord. It was common for audiences in Haydn’s time to applaud at this point. When, aged and frail, he heard The Creation for the last time at the tenth anniversary performance in 1808, Haydn responded to this acclamation
by pointing upwards and saying: ‘Not from me, it came from above.’ The structure of the libretto is clear. It is divided into the days of creation – the chorus throughout may be considered as the heavenly host. They are led by three angels, who are alternately the narrators and commentators on the stages of creation. Uriel (tenor) is the angel of the sun and of daylight, Raphael (bass) of earth, sea, and the beginning of things, Gabriel (soprano) is the leader of the heavenly host, and the angel of the vegetable kingdom and the beginning of bird life. As each day ends, the heavenly host sings in triumph. Musical illustrations of natural events are one of the most obvious features of The Creation. The illustrations are fresh and often humorous, sometimes awesome, as in Raphael’s description of the mystery of birth, multiplication and growth, with divided violas, cellos, and the bottom range of the double basses (Part II, The Fifth Day). This is not musical impressionism. Haydn’s musical images suggest, rather than the thing itself, the angelic and human wonder at it. H.C. Robbins Landon, the great modern Haydn authority, wrote perceptively: ‘perhaps only an old and very wise man could have written The Creation, and perhaps, too, only a sexagenarian could so poignantly recapture the bliss of
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the early morning, the magic of the moonlight, or the rapture of a spring day: these things which he knows will soon retreat beyond his grasp.’ Some of the greatest of Haydn’s imaginative feats are the least obvious, such as the representation of the beginning of the moonlight in the deep bass, and its culmination by the bowed instruments alone on their lower strings. In every case the musical illustration comes first, the words explaining it afterwards – allowing the listener to greet the explanation with recognition, and delight. The sunrise, portrayed with obvious but telling effect in rising notes, is the central symbol in The Creation – the sun, giving light to the universe, is the agent of enlightenment, and almost to be identified with God, whose goodness radiates from it. Another great moment is the appearance of man: the King of Nature, the breath and image of God, with his partner and spouse. The simple, popular and lyrical music
Haydn invented for this continues in Part III, where Eve and Adam appear in person. After a serene and truly paradisiacal orchestral introduction (using three flutes for the only time in the work), Haydn brings together the heavenly rejoicing and earthly celebration of human – the human voices of Adam and Eve in love-duet lead the choir of angels. Although Haydn goes on to end with a splendid double-fugue chorus, the real climax of The Creation is in this duet and chorus: in music often akin to Mozart’s for The Magic Flute, Haydn similarly celebrates the fulfilment of God’s purpose and of human aspirations in the felicity of conjugal love and celebration of the bounties of nature. In this sense he was true to himself when he said ‘I was never so religious as during the composition of The Creation’. David Garrett © 2018/2026
ROYAL PICTURE GALLERY MAURITSHUIS, THE HAGUE
The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (c.1615), landscape and animals by Jan Brueghel the Elder, figures of Adam and Eve by Peter Paul Rubens SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2025 • 11
The Words ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
CHEETHAM FRAILLON & DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here Tarimi nulay ngalawa yura garrabarra baraya yagu barrabugu ngyiningi ngara ngyiningi berong
Long time here live the people dancing and singing today and tomorrow, your way of knowing your way of belonging
Words by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, translated into Gadigal by Matthew Doyle
CHORUS Despairing, cursing rage attends their rapid fall. A new created world springs up at God’s command.
HAYDN The Creation PART ONE OVERTURE Representation of Chaos The First Day RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL, URIEL) AND CHORUS RAPHAEL In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. CHORUS And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; and God said: Let there be Light, and there was Light. URIEL And God saw the Light, that it was good; and God divided the Light from the darkness. ARIA (URIEL) WITH CHORUS Now vanish before the holy beams the gloomy, dismal shades of dark; the first of days appears. Disorder yields to order fair the place. Affrighted fled hell’s spirits black in throngs; down they sink in the deep of abyss to endless night.
The Second Day RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL) And God made the firmament, and divided the waters, which were under the firmament from the waters, which were above the firmament, and it was so. Outrageous storms now dreadful arose; as chaff by the winds are impelled the clouds. By heaven’s fire the sky is enflamed and awful rolled the thunders on high. Now from the floods in streams ascend reviving showers of rain, the dreary wasteful hail, the light and flaky snow. SOLO (GABRIEL) WITH CHORUS The marv’lous work beholds amaz’d the glorious hierarchy of heav’n and from th’ ethereal vaults resound the praise of God, and of the second day. CHORUS And to th’ ethereal vaults resound the praise of God, and of the second day.
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The Third Day RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL) And God said: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so.
CHORUS Awake the harp, the lyre awake! In shout and joy your voices raise! In triumph sing the mighty Lord! For he the heavens and earth has clothed in stately dress.
And God called the dry land: earth, and the gathering of waters called he seas; and God saw that it was good.
The Fourth Day RECITATIVE (URIEL) And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night, and to give light upon the earth; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years. He made the stars also.
ARIA (RAPHAEL) Rolling in foaming billows uplifted roars the boistr’ous sea. Mountains and rocks now emerge their tops into the clouds ascend. Thro’ th’open plains outstretching wide in serpent error rivers flow. Softly purling glides on thro’ silent vales the limpid brook. RECITATIVE (GABRIEL) And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth; and it was so. ARIA (GABRIEL) With verdure clad the fields appear delightful to the ravish’d sense; by flowers sweet and gay enhanced is the charming sight. Here vent their fumes the fragrant herbs; here shoots the healing plant. By load of fruits th’ expanded boughs are press’d; to shady vaults are bent the tufty groves; the mountain’s brow is crown’d with closed wood. RECITATIVE (URIEL) And the heavenly host proclaimed the third day, praising God and saying:
RECITATIVE (URIEL) In splendour bright is rising now the sun and darts his rays; an am’rous joyful happy spouse, a giant proud and glad to run his measur’d course. With softer beams and milder light steps on the silver moon thro’ silent night. The space immense of th’ azure sky in num’rous host of radiant orbs adorns, and the sons of God announced the fourth day in song divine, proclaiming thus his power: CHORUS WITH TRIO The heavens are telling the glory of God. The wonder of his works displays the firmament. GABRIEL, URIEL, RAPHAEL To day that is coming speaks it the day; the night, that is gone, to following night. CHORUS The heavens are telling… GABRIEL, URIEL, RAPHAEL In all the lands resounds the word, never unperceived, ever understood. CHORUS The heavens are telling…
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PART TWO The Fifth Day RECITATIVE (GABRIEL) And God said: Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. ARIA (GABRIEL) On mighty pens uplifted soars the eagle aloft, and cleaves the sky in swiftest flight to the blazing sun. His welcome bids to morn the merry lark, and cooing calls the tender dove his mate. From ev’ry bush and grove resound the nightingale’s delightful notes. No grief affected yet her breast, nor to a mournful tale were tun’d her soft enchanting lays. RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL) And God created great whales, and ev’ry living creature that moveth, and God blessed them, saying: Be fruitful all, and multiply! Ye winged tribes, be multiply’d, and sing on ev’ry tree! Multiply, ye finny tribes, and fill each wat’ry deep! Be fruitful, grow and multiply! And in your God and Lord rejoice! RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL) And the angels struck their immortal harps, and the wonders of the fifth day sang. CHORUS WITH TRIO GABRIEL Most beautiful appear, with verdure young adorn’d, the gently sloping hills. Their narrow, sinuous veins distil in crystal drops the fountain fresh and bright.
URIEL In lofty circles plays, and hovers thro’ the sky the chearful host of birds. And in the flying whirl, the glitt’ring plumes are dyed, as rainbows by the sun, RAPHAEL See flashing thro’ the wet in thronged swarms the fry on thousand ways around. Upheaved from the deep, th’ immense Leviathan sports on the foaming wave. GABRIEL, URIEL, RAPHAEL How many are thy works, O God! Who may their numbers tell? TRIO AND CHORUS The Lord is great, and great his might; his glory lasts for ever, and for evermore. The Sixth Day RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL) And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind; cattle and creeping thing, and beasts of the earth after their kind. RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL) Straight opening her fertile womb, the earth obey’d the word, and teem’d creatures numberless, in perfect forms and fully grown. Cheerful roaring, stands the tawny lion. In sudden leaps the flexible tiger appears. The nimble stag bears up his branching head. With flying mane and fiery look, impatient neighs the sprightly steed. The cattle in herds already seeks his food on fields and meadows green. And o’er the ground, as plants, are spread the fleecy, meek and bleating flock. Unnumber’d as
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the sands in whirl arose the host of insects. In long dimensions creeps with sinuous trace the worm. ARIA (RAPHAEL) Now heav’n in fullest glory shone; earth smiles in all her rich attire. The room of air with fowl is fill’d: the water swell’d by shoals of fish; by heavy beasts the ground is trod. But all the work was not complete. There wanted yet that wond’rous being that grateful should God’s pow’r admire, with heart and voice his goodness praise. RECITATIVE (URIEL) And God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he him. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. ARIA (URIEL) In native worth and honour clad, with beauty, courage, strength adorn’d, to heav’n erect and tall, he stands a man, the Lord and King of nature all. The large and arched front sublime of wisdom deep declares the seat, and in his eyes with brightness shines the soul, the breath and image of his God.
CHORUS AND TRIO Achieved is the glorious work; the Lord beholds it and is pleas’d. In lofty strains let us rejoice! Our song let be the praise of God. GABRIEL, URIEL On thee each living soul awaits; from thee, o Lord, they beg their meat. Thou openest thy hand, and sated all they are. RAPHAEL But as to them thy face is hid, with sudden terror they are struck. Thou tak’st their breath away; they vanish into dust. GABRIEL, URIEL, RAPHAEL Thou lett’st thy breath go forth again, and life with vigour fresh returns. Revived earth unfolds new force and new delights. CHORUS Achieved is the glorious work. Our song let be the praise of God. Glory to his name for ever; he sole on high exalted reigns, alleluia.
With fondness leans upon his breast the partner for him form’d, a woman fair and graceful spouse. Her softly smiling virgin looks, of flow’ry spring the mirror, bespeak him love, and joy, and bliss. RECITATIVE (RAPHAEL) And God saw ev’rything, that he had made; and behold it was very good; and the heavenly choir in song divine thus closed the sixth day.
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PART THREE In the Garden of Eden INTRODUCTION AND RECITATIVE (URIEL) In rosy mantle appears, by tunes sweet awak’d, the morning young and fair. From the celestial vaults pure harmony descends on ravished earth. Behold the blissful pair, where hand in hand they go! Their flaming looks express what feels the grateful heart. A louder praise of God their lips shall utter soon. Then let our voices ring, united with their song! DUET (EVE, ADAM) WITH CHORUS By thee with bliss, o bounteous Lord, the heav’n and earth are stor’d. This world, so great, so wonderful, thy mighty hand has fram’d. CHORUS For ever blessed be his pow’r! His name be ever magnified! ADAM Of stars the fairest, o how sweet thy smile at dawning morn! How brighten’st thou, o sun, the day, thou eye and soul of all! CHORUS Proclaim in your extended course th’almighty pow’r and praise of God! EVE And thou that rules the silent night, and all ye starry host, spread wide and ev’rywhere his praise in choral songs about!
ADAM Ye strong and cumb’rous elements, who ceaseless changes make, ye dusky mists and dewy steams, who raise and fall thro’ th’ air. EVE, ADAM, CHORUS Resound the praise of God our Lord! Great is his name, and great his might. EVE Ye purling fountains tune his praise, and wave your tops, ye pines! Ye plants, exhale, ye flowers breathe at him your balmy scent! ADAM Ye that on mountains stately tread, and ye, that lowly creep, ye birds, that sing at heaven’s gate, and ye that swim the stream, EVE, ADAM, CHORUS Ye living souls, extol the Lord! Him celebrate, him magnify! EVE, ADAM Ye valleys, hills, and shady woods, our raptur’d notes ye heard; from morn to ev’n you shall repeat our grateful hymns of praise. CHORUS Hail, bounteous Lord! Almighty, hail! Thy word call’d forth this wond’rous frame. Thy pow’r adore the heav’n and earth; we praise thee now and evermore. RECITATIVE (ADAM AND EVE) ADAM Our duty we performed now in off’ring up to God our thanks. Now follow me, dear partner of my life! Thy guide I’ll be, and ev’ry step pours new delights into our breast, shows wonders ev’rywhere. Then may’st thou feel and know the high degree of bliss the Lord allotted us, and with devoted heart his bounty celebrate. Come, follow me! Thy guide I’ll be!
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EVE O thou, for whom I am! My help, my shield, my all! Thy will is law to me. So God, our Lord, ordains, and from obedience grows my pride and happiness. DUET (ADAM AND EVE) ADAM Graceful consort! At thy side Softly fly the golden hours. Ev’ry moment brings new rapture; Ev’ry care is put to rest. EVE Spouse adored! At thy side purest joys o’erflow the heart. Life and all I am is thine; my reward thy love shall be. ADAM The dew dropping morn, O how she quickens all!
Final Scene RECITATIVE (URIEL) O happy pair, and always happy yet, if not misled by false conceit; ye strive at more, as granted is, and more to know, than know ye should! CHORUS WITH SOLOISTS Sing the Lord ye voices all! Utter thanks, ye all his works! Celebrate his pow’r and glory! Let his name resound on high! The Lord is great; his praise shall last for aye. Amen. English text by Baron Gottfried van Swieten who also translated the (now lost) original English libretto into German.
EVE The coolness of ev’n, O how she all restores! ADAM How grateful is of fruit the savour sweet! EVE How pleasing is of fragrant bloom the smell! EVE, ADAM But without thee, what is to me the morning dew, the breath of ev’n the sav’ry fruit, the fragrant bloom! With thee is ev’ry joy enhanced, with thee delight is ever new; with thee is life incessant bliss; thine, it whole shall be.
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PHOTO: KEITH SAUNDERS
About the Artists Brett Weymark conductor One of Australia’s foremost choral conductors, Brett Weymark OAM was appointed Artistic and Music Director in 2003, and he has conducted the Choirs throughout Australia as well as internationally. He has also conducted the Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland, West Australian and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Sydney Youth Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as productions for WAAPA, Pacific Opera and OzOpera, and he has performed with Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Song Company and Musica Viva. He studied singing and conducting at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, continuing his conducting studies with Simon Halsey, Vance George, Daniel Barenboim and John Eliot Gardiner, amongst others. His repertoire at SPC has included Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio, the Mozart, Verdi, Duruflé and Fauré requiems, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He champions Australian composers, and has premiered works by Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats-Chernin, John Peterson, Daniel Walker, Rosalind Page, Peter Sculthorpe, Andrew Schultz and Ross Edwards. In 2011 he premiered his own work Brighton to Bondi with the Festival Chorus. He has also conducted musical theatre programs including Bernstein’s Candide, which won multiple BroadwayWorld Sydney awards.
Under his direction, SPC received a Helpmann Award for Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms, directed by Peter Sellars, and was nominated for a Limelight Award for Purcell’s King Arthur. He was chorus master for the Adelaide Festival productions of Saul (2017), Hamlet (2018) and Requiem (2020), and he has prepared choirs for Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Simon Rattle. He has recorded for the ABC and conducted film scores for Happy Feet, Mad Max Fury Road and Australia. Recent conducting highlights include Bernstein’s Candide (Opera Australia), Joseph Twist’s Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan (Opera Australia), Sweeney Todd (West Australian Opera), Jandamarra by Paul Stanhope and Steve Hawke (SSO), Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time (Adelaide Festival) and Carousel (State Opera South Australia). In 2001 he was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal and in 2021 the Medal of the Order of Australia. Brett Weymark is passionate about singing and the role music plays in both the wellbeing of individuals and the health and vitality of a community’s culture. He believes music can transform lives and should be accessible to all.
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PHOTO: ROBERT CATTO
PHOTO: DILLON SAVAGE
Celeste Lazarenko soprano
DONATE NOW Onward and upward! Here at Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, we’re proud of our successes. In coming to our concert today, you’re contributing to that success. Thank you! But as the scope of our achievement grows, so does the need for your support. A donation to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs represents an opportunity to invest in our future. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to SPC and support our continued success.
To donate online visit sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/donate or call (02) 8274 6200
A graduate of both the Guildhall in London and the Sydney Conservatorium, Celeste Lazarenko has appeared with English National Opera, Opera North, Opé ra AngersNantes, Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, Pinchgut Opera and Sydney Chamber Opera. She has also appeared in concert with the Sydney, Queensland, Melbourne, Tasmanian, Canberra and New Zealand symphony orchestras, Sydney Chamber Choir and the Australian Haydn Ensemble. In Australia, she has sung the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen (Victorian Opera); Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia and Elle in La Voix humaine (Sydney Chamber Opera); and Té laïre in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, Medea in Cavalli’s Giasone, Leonore in Gré try’s L’Amant jaloux and Serpina in Maid Made Boss (La serva padrona by Pergolesi), all for Pinchgut Opera. She has toured for Opera Australia as Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Pamina (The Magic Flute), and appeared in OA mainstage productions singing Donna Anna, Pamina, Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro), The Woodbird (Siegfried) and Ilia (Idomeneo). Recent SPC appearances include Rossini in Paris (2025), Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mahler 8 and Handel’s Samson. Other recent concert highlights include Heavenly Sopranos (AHE), Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (CSO) and Mozart’s Requiem (TSO), and this season she sings Carmina Burana (Sydney Chamber Choir) and Brahms’s Requiem (OA Chorus and Orchestra at City Recital Hall).
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Andrew Goodwin tenor
Michael Lampard baritone
Andrew Goodwin has performed leading roles with the Bolshoi Opera, Gran Theatre Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, La Scala Milan, Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera and Sydney Chamber Opera. He has appeared with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow and Melbourne chamber orchestras and all the Australian symphony orchestras, and has given recitals at Wigmore Hall and for the Oxford International Song Festival. Performances this year include recitals in the Bendigo and Orange chamber music festivals and Queensland ArtSong, and return engagements with the Melbourne Bach Choir (Evangelist, Bach’s St Matthew Passion), West Australian Symphony Orchestra (Steuermann, The Flying Dutchman), Sydney Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem), and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Brisbane Chamber Choir and St Peter’s Adelaide (Messiah). Recent highlights include Paul Stanhope’s Mahāsāgar and Alfred in Die Fledermaus (WASO); Stravinsky’s Nightingale (Adelaide Festival); Mozart’s Requiem (TSO) and Mass in C minor (QSO); Haydn’s Creation (Australian Haydn Ensemble); Richard Mills’ Nativity (ASO); Bach’s Mass in B minor (Sydney Chamber Choir) and recitals in Canberra, Brisbane and at the Four Winds Festival. For SPC he has sung Fauré’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Bach’s Matthew-Passion (1841 version). He studied voice at the St Petersburg Conservatory and in the UK and has won many awards and scholarships, also receiving support from the Australian Music Foundation and ARS Musica Australis.
Michael Lampard has been a finalist in Placido Domingo’s international Operalia competition, subsequently appearing as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte for the Rome Opera Festival. Appearances for Opera Australia include Schaunard in La bohème (his OA debut in 2020), Dancairo and Morales in Carmen, Bartolo in The Barber of Seville and Joseph Buquet in The Phantom of the Opera (Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour). Other roles include Alidoro in La Cenerentola (Victorian Opera); and for Melbourne Opera, Schaunard in La bohème, the Marquis in La traviata, Biterolf in Tannhäuser, Fiorello and Ambrogio in The Barber of Seville, Conte di Luna in Il trovatore, Morales in Carmen, Zurga in The Pearlfishers, Kilian in Der Freischütz and Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde. He has also appeared for Australian Contemporary Opera Company (previously Gertrude Opera) and the Victorian regional touring company Lyster Opera. Michael Lampard has performed in concert with the Sydney and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, at the 2023 Albury Chamber Music Festival and in James Humberstone’s dramatised song cycle The Weight of Light for the Street Theatre (Canberra). This is his Sydney Philharmonia Choirs debut.
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Symphony Chorus Brett Weymark Artistic and Music Director Elizabeth Scott Associate Music Director Tim Cunniffe Assistant Chorus Master and Principal Rehearsal Pianist Benjamin Crowe and Naomi Hnat Conducting Fellows Dono Ng and Estella Roche Rehearsal Pianists SOPRANOS Shelley Andrews Julie Bangura Georgina Bitcon Olga Bodrova Catherine Bryant Tracy Chen Anna Claude Anne Cooke Nat Crane Pamela Cunningham Prasadhini De Silva Vanessa Downing Elizabeth Farrar Ann-Louise Felton Jehane Ghabrial Judith Gorry Danielle Greenway Caroline Gude Yoshiko Hasegawa Sue Justice Monica Jongsuk Kim Suzie Kitto Yvette Leonard Alison McDonald Eva Machainova Bernadette Mitchell Sarah Muetterlein Nathalie O’Toole Georgia Rivers Jolanda Rotteveel Allison Rowlands Emma Sedlak Sarah Thompson Sara Watts Genni Wetherell Maria Woringer
ALTOS Amanda Baird Debra Baker Gillian Behrens Teresa Benton Katie Blake Emma Bourke Grace Chen Erwin D’Souza Julie Dowsley Claire Duffy Jan Fawke Susan Gandy Penny Gay Jennifer Gillman Jane Greaves Charlotte Greig Kathryn Harwood Abigail Hatherley Jo Howlett Louise Imray Chi Wa Ip Lindy Jefferson Julie Kalitis Clare McDonogh Janice McKeand Maggie McKelvey Hannah Mason Eugenia Munro Pepe Newton Sandy Ng Wendy Ng Catherine O’Grady Margaret Olive Lindsey Paget-Cooke Jonquil Ritter Virginia Rowlands
Jenni Schofield Debbie Scholem Maite Serra Jan Shaw Meg Shaw Jean Taylor Linda Trevor Carla Trott Angela Veerhuis Joanna Warren Marianna Wong TENORS Malcolm Day Robert Elliott Tony Green Steven Hankey Nick Hazell Leo Hui Michael Kertesz Vincent Lo George Panaretos Robert Thomson Nicholas Tong George Watkins Will Willitts
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BASSES Jock Baird Lloyd Bowden Jeremy Brett Julian Coghlan Daryl Colquhoun Paul Couvret Robert Cunningham Nicholas Davison Marco Deininger James Devenish Roderick Enriquez David Fisher Tom Forrester-Paton Jonathan Geddes Oliver Hervir Derek Hodgkins Peter Hogg Ross Johnston Bruce Lane Mark McGoldrick Frank Monagle Chris Moore Alan Morrison Eric Nelson Kelvin Olive Peter Poole Simon Ranguis Michael Ryan Jonathan Smithers Ben Waters Mark Wong
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra FIRST VIOLINS Michele O’Young Concertmaster Natalie Favaloro Jennifer Hoy Rebecca Irwin Wendy Kong Anna Murakawa Alex Norton Riikka Sintonen Vanessa Tammetta Charlie Westhoff SECOND VIOLINS Léone Ziegler Angela Cassar Caron Chan Evelyn Cirevski Emma Hayes Maya Homsma James Krockenberger Benjamin Li Narine Melconian Julia Russoniello VIOLAS Nicole Forsyth Rachel Dyker Charlotte Fetherston Phoebe Gilbert Darrin McCann Georgina Price Cecile Ross Anne Sweeney
CELLOS Adrian Wallis Christopher Bennett Anthea Cottee Pierre Emery Anita Gluyas Margaret Iddison DOUBLE BASSES David Cooper Jeremy Fox Nicole Murray Prior Hayley Witmore FLUTES James Fortune Dana Alison Jessica Lee OBOES Matthew Bubb Alex Fontaine
HORNS Robert Johnson Jenny McLeod Sneyd TRUMPETS Dan Henderson Kendal Cuneo TROMBONES Nigel Crocker Justin Kearin Brett Page (Bass trombone) TIMPANI Joshua Hill FORTEPIANO Nathan Cox Bold = Principal
CLARINETS Andrew Doyle Jarred Mattes BASSOONS Gillian Hansen Laura Brown Bailey Ireland (Contrabassoon)
Fortepiano after Stein by D. Jacques Way, Stonington, 1986 Supplied by Carey Beebe Harpsichords and prepared by Joanna Butler
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PHOTO: ROBERT CATTO
Symphony Chorus performing Bach’s St John Passion in April
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Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Since it was founded in 1920, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs has brought people together through music, and for over five decades it has been the heartbeat of choral performance at the Sydney Opera House. With more than 2,000 singers across six ensembles, giving around fifty performances annually throughout Sydney and beyond, SPC is Australia’s premier choral organisation. Under the leadership of Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark OAM and Associate Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott, SPC brings the full power of the human voice to dynamic music making – from blockbuster choral classics like Carmina Burana and the Verdi Requiem to soaring soundtracks and heartwarming musical theatre, from Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces to bold new Australian works. In addition to its annual concert series, each year SPC collaborates with top-tier orchestras, soloists and conductors, performing regularly with many of Australia’s most prominent arts companies and festivals, and as the choir of choice for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra since 1936. Highlights over the years have included the opening of the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney and Nagano Olympic Games, and being the first Australian choir to perform at the BBC Proms. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs concerts celebrate diversity – of voices, of stories, and of sound – with programs that allow singers and audiences to connect with an exhilarating range of music in languages from English to Gadigal, keeping things fresh with premieres, commissions and new interpretations of beloved classics.
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VICE-REGAL PATRONS The Hon. Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales and Mr Dennis Wilson VICE PATRON Lauris Elms AM OBE DMus (Syd) AMBASSADOR FOR SINGING Yvonne Kenny AM BOARD Elizabeth Metanios Chair Claire Duffy President Terence Kwan, Jill Lester, Paul Lorraine, Jonquil Ritter, Elizabeth Stuart, Bruce Watson, Jaimie Wolbers STAFF Matthew Beale Executive Director Brett Weymark OAM Artistic & Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott Associate Music Director Tim Cunniffe Assistant Chorus Master & Principal Rehearsal Pianist Mark Robinson Artistic Operations Manager Jenny Ainsworth Artistic Operations Supervisor Jonah Eskander Artistic Operations Supervisor Susan Gandy Orchestra Coordinator Simon Crossley-Meates Marketing Manager Symn Waters Office & Box Office Administrator Alicia Gibbons Development Director Sarah Howell Head of Philanthropy Louise Green Finance Manager PROGRAM CREDITS Yvonne Frindle Editor and Design Tone Bullen, Smorgasbord Creative Cover Immij NSW Printer
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Wharf 4/5, 15 Hickson Road, Dawes Point | (02) 8274 6200 | hello@sydneyphilharmonia.com.au sydneyphilharmonia.com.au SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA CHOIRS • 2025 • 25
Our Supporters Sydney Philharmonia Choirs gratefully acknowledges the vision, commitment and generosity of our supporters. $50,000+ Macquarie Group Foundation $10,000 – $39,999 Stephen and Jennifer Cook Ruth Edenborough Prof. Jenny Edwards Ingrid Kaiser Justice François Kunc and Felicity Rourke Min Zhu Anonymous (6) $5,000 – $9,999 Christine Bishop Katie Blake Olivier Chretien Griffin Foundation Dr David and Sarah Howell Peter and Yvette Leonard Macpherson Family Jolanta Masojada Michael Pain and Lisa Giles Jonquil Ritter Joanna Sutherland Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Supper Club Kay Vernon Anonymous (1)
$2,500 – $4,999 Lynette Baker Susan Barrett Kate Bartlett Ian and Claire Bennett Robyn Blainey David and Halina Brett Joan Connery OAM Nathalie Deeson – in memory of Brian Deeson Kate Foot David Jacobs Dr Carolyn Lowry OAM and Peter Lowry AM Julianne Maxwell Robbie Nicol Anonymous (1) $1,000 – $2,499 Lillian and Peter Armitage Tel Asiado Jock Baird – in memoriam Annette McClure Caroline Bessemer John and Sue Bowring Virginia Braden Woolley Prof. Michael Chesterman Rouna Daley Peter Davenport Marco Deininger Jane Diamond Julie and Bill Dowsley Dr Kathy Esson The Hon. Ben Franklin MLC Bunny Gardiner-Hill Warren Green Vesna Hatezic
Margaret Hofman Sally and Antony Jeffrey AM Fiona Joneshart Murray Keir Richard and Glenda Kirkby Linsay and John Knight Dr Veronica Lambert Debra and Michael Langford Christopher and Gillian Lee Kevin Lee Jill Lester Rachel Maiden – in memory of Tony Maiden David Marr Tomoko and Sohei Maruyama Maggie McKelvey Jeffrey Mellefont Elizabeth Metanios In memory of Marjorie Murray Mary Anne Neilsen OAM Susan Nicholas Jennie and Ivor Orchard In memory of Helen Pedersen Anna Pender Mark Robinson Félicité Ross Libby Stuart Robyn Tupman Anne Twomey Bruce Watson and Alison Lockhart Sara Watts Brett Weymark OAM Angeline Zaghloul Anonymous (4)
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Your gift, of any size, would make a vital contribution to ensuring our future. sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/donate Donations to SPC of $500 and above are recognised on our website and in our program books for 12 months from the date of donation. Supporters listed here are current as at 18 June 2026.
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Thank you We applaud the generous involvement of our partners in supporting Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. $500 – $999 Pam Anson Helen Black Anita Burkart Averill Chase Leanne Clark Philippa Clingan Julian Coghlan and Andrea Beattie Patricia Curotta Ian Davies James Devenish Nancy Fox AM Dallas Griffin David Hardy and Margaret Seale Jane Hunter Alison Kent Terence Kwan Gregory Lawler Anna Lo Brian Lobb in memory of Jennifer Lobb Elaine Macdonald Robert Mitchell Mary Mortimer in memory of Donald Denoon Louise Nicholas Peter Phillips AO and Jane Phillips Coralee Rose Meg Shaw and Brian Yeo Michael Taylor Michael Whittaker Jaimie Wolbers Marianna Wong Ellen Wu Margaret Wulf Anonymous (1)
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We also thank our donors who contribute up to $500.
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Next at Sydney Philharmonia Choirs OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
Britten’s War Requiem
World O World
Handel’s Messiah
Festival Chorus conducted by Brett Weymark
VOX 25th Anniversary conducted by Elizabeth Scott
Symphony Chorus, VOX and the Christmas Choir conducted by Elizabeth Scott
Sat 17 October | 1pm Sydney Opera House
Sat 23 November | 3pm White Bay Power Station
11, 12, 13 December Sydney Opera House
Tickets from $49 | $30 for 30 & unders Concessions available sydneyphilharmonia.com.au | (02) 8274 6200