This oratorio was an outside job taken on by Haydn in addition to his regular work as Kapellmeister for Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy. He was commissioned to write it for the TonkŸnstler-SocietŠt of Vienna, and was his first commission for Viennese performance in twenty years. During that time, his work for the Esterhazy family had won him general admiration, and some of it was known in Austria and abroad, but very much of it was written for a special occasion and performed for private invited audiences. This, then, was a welcome opportunity to present his work at a public concert. In addition, it allowed him to use a larger orchestra and chorus than was available in the small orchestra and chorus employed by Esterhazy.

The oratorio was played on the 2nd and 4th of April, 1775. A review of the event said that "Expression, nature, and are were so finely woven in his [Haydn's] work that the listener must perforce love the one and admire the other." It went on to say that the choruses " ... glowed with a fire that was otherwise only in HŠndel." The work attracted international attention, and arias and other numbers from it circulated widely in manuscript. It immediately resulted in a commission for an opera ("La vera costanza").

Performers of the oratorio face some textual choices. Haydn revised it in 1784 for another performance by the TonkŸnstler-SocietŠt. In so doing he considerably cut the 1775 version, but he added two new numbers and expanded the orchestra (originally two each flutes, oboes, English horns, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, and strings) by four horns and two trombones. The two additional numbers are a pair of magnificent choruses; in general the oratorio benefits greatly from the tightening and improvement of pace that Haydn's cuts effected.

The work is full of beautiful numbers with the breathtaking originality we expect from Haydn. While it does not challenge "The Creation" (Haydn's greatest late oratorio) as a masterpiece, it is still an excellent work. It is marred, however, by its libretto, which is by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini. It is based on the Book of Tobias, one of the Apocryphal books. The text is full of moralizing and philosophizing, and one is forced to recall how Voltaire lampooned this sort of thing in the person of Dr. Pangloss. The music, however, makes the text worth taking.



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