Art review: The Creation

By the time Haydn penned his oratorio The Creation, he was not only one of history's most prolific composers, but also the most famous - and adored - European musician of his day. Acknowledged as a masterpiece at its first performance in 1799, the work is a model of Haydn's hallmark buoyancy, artless imagination and sheer fun.

Following a simple, repetitive structure of recitative-aria-chorus, the work calls less for an intellectual overview than a joyous revelling in the work's kaleidoscopic storyboard.

Haydn must have grinned from ear to ear as he depicted the Big Bang chaos before plunging into the recreation of all and sundry: lion, tiger, stag, horse, cattle, sheep, insects and worms each get a mention (in just three minutes).

The 75-strong SingFest 2013 Youth Chorus provided the choral punctuations that sign off on each of the seven days of God's work. Fresh, vigorous and rock-solid, they did their chorus masters Patrick Chiu and Felix Shuen proud, sounding taut in ensemble, balanced in tone and confident in attack - their German pronunciation didn't let them down, either. Their performance will hopefully attract more audiences to see choral shows.

If there were two places where the chorus particularly excelled, it was the conclusions to Parts One and Three of the work. They performed from memory, eyes hooked on both the conductor Helmuth Rilling and, by default, the auditorium. Such eye contact with the audience came only occasionally from soloists Alex Tam Tin-lok (tenor) and Caleb Woo (bass), who nonetheless gave vocally deft performances, singing with uniform clarity throughout their range.