On April 30, 1798, so many people crowded the streets around the Palais Schwarzenberg in Vienna that as many as 30 police officers were needed to keep the crowd at bay.
The first performance of Haydn's Creation took place beyond the doors of the Theatre. The oratory is another of the many gifts taken from London stays. The skilful impresario Salomon handed Haydn a poem taken from Genesis and John Milton's "Paradise Lost", hoping that Haydn would draw from it such an oratorio as to be able to stand alongside those of Handel. The composer had the text translated into German – not without licenses – by Baron van Swieten to draw from it a very personal oratorio, full of the irrepressible joy and passionate serenity that characterizes most of Haydn's sacred works. The result was a triumph: so great was the enthusiasm for The Creation, that when they opened to the public the sale of tickets for the 1799 revival, these were completely sold out and the oratory was re-proposed almost 40 times in Vienna alone, before the death of its author in 1809.
