Choral Evensong - 30 October 2016

This week's webcast of Choral Evensong features the Evening Service in E by Sydney Watson and 'Awake the harp' from Joseph Haydn's Creation.

Sydney Watson OBE (1903 - 91) spent a lot of his musical life in Oxford; he was an undergraduate student at Keble College, spent five years as Organist at New College between 1933 and 1938, and finally taking up the post of lecturer at Christ Church as well as the post of Organist of Christ Church Cathedral between 1955 and 1970. Aside from his setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis texts, first published in 1937, Watson is known for directing the first performance of William Walton's The Twelve in 1965. In 1970, he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his services to music.

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809) was first inspired to write a large oratorio during his visits to England in 1791 and 1794, hearing the works of George Frideric Handel performed by a large-scale orchestra. Haydn commenced work on The Creation ca. 1797, with the piece receiving its premiere, using the German translation, at the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna in 1798, and its first performance in England, with the original English libretto, at Covent Garden in 1800.