My review of Thursday night’s performance at Roy Thomson Hall of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Gustavo Gimeno with soloists, the TSO and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is now up at Bachtrack. It’s Beethoven in the grand manner and very enjoyable. It’s playingg again Friday, Saturday, Sunday with a singalong livestream at Sankofa Square on Friday.
Photo credit: Alan Cabral… courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
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My review of last Thursday’s TSO season opener is now published on bachtrack.com.
Photo credit: Alan Cabral
My review of the TSO’s concert on Wednesday night with Stewart Goodyear and Kristiina Poska is now up at Bachtrack.
Photo credit: Allan Cabral, courtesy of the TSO
@bachtrack
Here are my top picks for May.
My review of last night’s concert at Roy Thomson Hall featuring the TSO, Anna Prohaska and the Spanish ambassador is now up at La Scena Musicale.
Photo credit: Jae Yang
My review of John Adams conducting the TSO on Wednesday evening is now up at Bachtrack.
Photo: Alan Cabral
My review of Wednesday’s concert at the TSO with Emily D’Angelo is now up at Bachtrack.
Photo credit: Allan Cabral
@bachtrack
This year’s Messiah at the TSO is a fairly small scale affair by TSO standards. There’s still the 100+ strong Toronto Mendelssohn Choir but the orchestra is quite small; 12 violins, 6 violas, 4 cellos, 2 basses, 2 oboes and bassoon, plus Christopher Bagan on a sort of monster harpsichord/organ combo. There were two trumpets in the gallery for “Glory to God” and they were back (on stage) with timpani for the Hallelujah chorus and part 3. With Jane Glover conducting it felt like it was almost in Tafelmusik territory.
Last night’s TSO program, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, kicked off with three short pieces by Canadian composers. All were impressive. The first two; Adam Scime’s A Dream of Refuge and Bekah Simms’ Bite are reflections (to some at extent at least) on the pandemic. The Scime piece is lighter and brighter. There is uncertainty there but ultimately it seems to speak of hope. The Simms piece wis much darker with heavy percussion and blaring brass. A sense of uncertainty permeates the string writing. It’s quite disturbing. Roydon Tse’s Unrelenting Sorrow was written for those who have lost loved ones. It’s quite melodic and has strong contrasts between dramatic and more lyrical passages. Sorrowful perhaps but not unrelentingly so.
To Roy Thomson Hall last night for the first time in over two years to see Gustavo Gimeno conduct (my first time) with Barbara Hannigan featuring in a major premiere in the first half. The concert kicked off with a 3 minute piece by Julia Mermelstein; in moments, into bloom. It was over too quickly to register much of an impression with me. I certainly enjoyed the Stravinsky Scherzo fantastique that followed. This seems to be Gimeno’s type of music and he had excellent control of rhythm, dynamics and colour which augured well for The Firebird coming up after the interval.
operaramblings 