Haydn’s Creation has deservedly received every accolade it is possible to bestow on a piece of music. The composer’s use of descriptive orchestral colour, adventurous harmonies, and varied rhythmic inventiveness — all have been singled out for praise.

Of course, while Haydn provided all the materials, it’s up to the performers to bring the music off the printed page, and the Oxford Bach Choir did so with a vengeance. The attack was terrific in choruses like Despairing, cursing rage, Awake the harp, and The Lord is great.

OBC’s trademark ability to crescendo as one voice all the way from a whispering pianissimo up to full power was also much in evidence, with a colossal climax reached in Achieved is the glorious work.

Conductor Nicholas Cleobury had the choral sound well balanced across soprano, alto, tenor and bass, although once or twice his evident enthusiasm for the work did seem to get him almost too airborne.

At those moments, the choir sounded as if it was in a slight rush to fit all the words in — The Heavens are telling, for instance, went at a roaring pace.

But always the singers sounded as if they were enjoying their work — and although this might seem only a cosmetic embellishment, the decision to sing the first and last choruses from memory enhanced the impact of the music considerably.

OBC sang the work in English, although not quite in the familiar Novello edition. In an interesting programme note, Michael Foster and Robin Darwall-Smith suggested that Haydn’s collaborator, Baron Gottfried van Swieten, didn’t quite have the English perfect, with phrases like “the flexible tiger” and “to day that is coming speaks it the day” being regularly singled out for criticism.

Alterations duly followed, but OBC’s performance aimed to strip them out again. So bass Giles Underwood was able to sing “In sudden leaps the flexible tiger appears” before moving to his bottom notes for “In long dimensions creeps with sinuous trace the worm”.

Underwood was joined by soprano Gillian Ramm, and tenor Andrew Staples to form a strong team of soloists — Ramm became positively flirtatious as she depicted Eve eyeing up Adam.

With nimble accompaniment supplied by the London Mozart Players, this was altogether a most satisfying Creation, which showed that the Oxford Bach Choir is currently on strong form.

The choir returns to the Sheldonian Theatre on December 18 for its annual Christmas Concert.