When Haydn left England, the impresario who had arranged his concerts there handed him a new libretto entitled "The Creation of the World."
In Vienna, Haydn's influential friend and patron the Baron van Swieten recognized that this work could "show the whole compass of (Haydn's) profound accomplishments and express the full power of his inexhaustible genius."
Haydn decided to set it in both German and English, and began composing in 1796.
By 1798 the great work was ready, and it received its private premiere for van Swieten's aristocratic society of music-lovers on April 30 of that year.
The public had to wait until March 19, 1799. At the public premiere, the reception was overwhelming, prompting over 40 performances during the next decade in Vienna alone.
The Creation was soon performed all over Europe, and even in America, where the Handel and Haydn Society gave the American premiere of the work in 1819.
The Society has since performed the work many times.

Haydn's The Creation is a vivid portrait of the seven days of Creation as depicted in the Bible, with some poetic reinforcement from Milton's Paradise Lost.
It is scored for full Classical orchestra (including significant parts for such rare instruments as the bass trombone), chorus, and soloists, Haydn's music contains striking images of the natural world as it is created.
The work begins with a depiction of chaos, before the world was formed. Haydn creates one of his most extraordinary effects with the burst of orchestral glory at the announcement "And there was light!" As the days of Creation proceed, Haydn finds wonderful ways of musically illustrating the creatures of the world, from whales to birds to, lastly, humanity itself.