Friday night saw the first concert of the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers’ 2023/24 season at Jeanne Lamon Hall. It was an intriguing programme both in the choice of music and in the use of dance in the presentation. The bookends were two works written in 1707 by two 22 year olds; JS Bach and GF Händel. The sandwich filling, as it were, was To the Hands by Caroline Shaw.
Bach’s Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV 4 takes us on a journey from dark to light with each movement or verse being a variation on the basic Lutheran hymn from which the text is taken. It uses choir, strings, harpsichord and rgan to good effect. The bonus here was a black clad Laurence Lemieux dancing an expressive, if somewhat lugubrious, choreography on the stage behind the musicians.
operaramblings 