Last night was the fifth concert in memory of Rachel Krehm’s sister Elizabeth.  This year it was held in the rather cavernous and imposing Christ Church Deer Park, an Anglican church at Yonge and St. Clair.  The concert opened with an elegiac piece for strings written by Jean Coulthard for the coronation of Elizabeth II.  Then Rachel gave us a beautiful and moving account of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder.  Um Mitternacht(*) is a particular favourite of mine and seemed especially fitting here.  It was the full orchestral setting with Evan Mitchell conducting his extraordinary orchestra.  They were back after the break for a thoroughly compelling account of Tchaikovsky’s great sixth symphony Pathétique.  What’s remarkable is that this isn’t an orchestra that has a permanent basis.  It’s a group of musicians who come together for these concerts and make great music on modest rehearsal time.  It’s especially impressive that these things always seem to happen in huge churches with churchy acoustics rather than a concert hall and they still sound terrific.  As in previous years, this was a fund raiser for the ICU at St. Mike’s and once again it looked like mission accomplished as there was a very decent audience in the church.

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