Page "The Creation (Haydn)" Paragraph 10

The first performance the next day was a private affair, but hundreds of people crowded into the street around the Schwarzenberg Palace to hear this eagerly anticipated work.

Admission was by invitation only.

Those invited included wealthy patrons of the arts, high government officials, prominent composers and musicians, and a sprinkling of the nobility of several countries ; the common folk, who would have to wait for later occasions to hear the new work, so crowded the streets near the palace that some 30 special police were needed to keep order.

Many of those lucky enough to be inside wrote glowing accounts of the piece.

In a letter to the Neue teutsche Merkur, one audience member wrote: " Already three days have passed since that happy evening, and it still sounds in my ears and heart, and my breast is constricted by many emotions even thinking of it.