10th November 2018
At the Regent on Broadway on Saturday November 10, 2018 at 7.30pm - an historic world premiere performance of The Hymn of Adam and Eve by 18th century English composer Samuel Arnold, coupled with Part Three of Haydn’s Creation, conducted by Guy Donaldson
The concert features the Palmerston North Renaissance Singers, the Whanganui Schola Sacra (director Roy Tankersley of Palmerston North), the Manawatu Sinfonia, soloists from Palmerston North, and New Zealand coloratura soprano Pasquale Orchard.
Samuel Arnold was a leading English composer and musicologist (he was the original editor of Handel’s oratorios, and he also conducted the first English performance of Haydn’s oratorio Creation). He subsequently composed the Hymn of Adam and Eve following the first performance of Creation as a showcase for a brilliant German soprano that he had been working with. Unfortunately just before the first performance of his oratorio, Arnold died and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The work has subsequently never been performed anywhere in the world, as Arnold’s importance in England was overshadowed by Haydn. Palmerston North musicologist Professor Robert Hoskins is a world authority on Samuel Arnold, and he has prepared the performing edition that will be used. Part Three of Haydn’s Creation deals with Adam and Eve and is therefore an ideal partner to this work.