Il ritorno di Tobia –

All music lovers are familiar with Haydn’s great late oratorios – but who also knows the first one that he wrote about 25 years earlier? Although the Biblical story of young Tobias who is able to cure his blind father with heavenly help is in the tradition of the Neapolitan oratorio, it already displays signs of Haydn’s personal style and is one of the most significant sacred works that he had written up to that time. This applies both to the virtuoso arias as well as to the expressive choruses. This long neglected work is now performed more frequently and our study edition takes this new popularity into account.?