FURNESS Bach Choir up the ante next weekend with a performance of one of the most evocative works in the choral canon.

Under their dynamic young Italian musical director, Marco Bellasi, the acclaimed choristers will perform one of Joseph Haydn's most expressive and popular works, The Creation, with a full orchestra.

Most of the choir's performances take place on the Furness peninsula, but on Saturday, June 30 (7.30pm) they are stretching their legs and taking their talents further afield, with a much awaited concert at the Victoria Hall at Grange-over-Sands.

Haydn wrote The Creation quite late in life in 1798. He had spent some time in London and was very impressed with the English choral tradition of singing oratorios, notably by Handel, so he decided to try his hand at something similar. It is a setting of a poem describing God's creation of the world - from light, water, plants, fish, birds, animals and, finally, mankind in the form of Adam and Eve. The orchestral writing is some of the most imaginative in any of Haydn's choral works, and there are some truly stupendous moments, such as the description of the earth "without form, and void" sung in hushed tones by the chorus, followed by a sudden joyful, earth shattering chord on the word "light" as God begins His task of creation. The descriptions in the solo arias of the gradual process of creating all living things are amazing in their charm and evocativeness, and the arias are interspersed by grand choruses, sometimes almost hymn-like in their simplicity, sometimes impressively complex. The work ends with Adam and Eve blissful in the paradise God has created.

Marco has worked with the choir and soloists to achieve a range of moods and styles to suit each piece of the story. He's a highly regarded, up-and-coming conductor, whose worked with such eminent figures as Sir Mark Elder and Ricardo Muti.

The prizewinning Italian conductor and violinist - who first started singing as a chorister in the Cathedral Choir of the Duomo in Milan - has worked with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata and has sung on numerous occasions as a baritone soloist and in chamber groups. He has also performed with the Royal Northern College of Music Orchestra and the Hallé, and before taking his masters degree at RNCM, graduated in conducting at the Milan Conservatoire in 2007. Marco is also a professional violinist.

Tickets are available from Grange-over-Sands Tourist Office, from Suttons Bookshop at Ulverston or by telephone on 01229-837680.