Philippe Jordan

Philippe Jordan is a Swiss conductor who has led major opera houses and orchestras across Europe, with a reputation built on Viennese classical and German romantic repertoire. Listeners can expect a well-paced, transparent approach to the orchestra rather than heavy-handed drama. In Boston he conducts Haydn's oratorio The Creation, a work that traces the biblical story of the world's origin through vivid orchestral scene-painting and choral writing.

Jordan is known for keeping textures clear and tempos steady, letting Haydn's or Wagner's own orchestration carry the drama rather than adding extra weight. In The Creation, listen for how the orchestra depicts chaos at the very opening, with unresolved, wandering harmonies, before the arrival of light bursts out in a sudden, radiant chord. Expect the choir and soloists to be balanced carefully against the orchestra, with Haydn's word-painting, rustling strings for creeping creatures, arching phrases for birds and swelling brass for the created world, given room to speak. A Jordan performance of this piece tends to favor architecture and shape over spectacle, building toward the choral outbursts of praise without rushing there.