Sir Andrew Davis is in town conducting his own orchestration of Handel’s Messiah. In the modern world this is probably as close as it gets to Sir Malcolm Sargent and the Huddersfield Choral Society. He conducts the TSO with brass and woodwinds that Handel never saw and lots of percussion including snare drum, sleigh bells, tambourines and marimba. He also has the not inconsiderable heft of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
Last night’s TSO concert was pretty satisfying. It kicked off with The Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome. I don’t think I’ve ever really listened to this without visuals before so that was interesting. I thought Michael Sanderling did a good job of maintaining clarity while building towards the big climax. For the rest of the program the orchestra was joined by Simone Osborne. We got some “lollipops” in the first half. The Song to the Moon from Rusalka, Depuis le jour from Louise and, unannounced, Vilja from The Merry Widow. Lovely singing, here sensitively accompanied by Sanderling and the orchestra. Simone was clearly audible throughout which doesn’t always happen at Roy Thomson Hall.
A bit of a lull this week with the COC fall season over and Yaksmas festivities still, mercifully, some time away. Still there are a couple of events of note. Simone Osborne is singing with the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday and Saturday in a program of Mahler, Dvoràk, Charpentier and Strauss. There’s also the fall production from the Glenn Gould School. It’s a double bill of Xavier Montsalvatge’s Puss in Boots and Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs. Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm in Mazzoleni Hall.
As Brian Cohen discovered picking a Messiah is a tricky business. So is picking a Messiah. As usual the winter solstice season in Toronto offers multiple options. The nearest thing to the John Barbirolli approach is the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall. This is your big, grand Messiah with famous soloists, modern instruments and a big chorus. This year, besides the perennial Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, there are soloists Erin Wall, Liz DeShong, Andrew Staples and John Relyea and, best of all, Andrew Davis conducts. This one is on December 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th at 8pm with a 3pm matinee on the 20th.
As ever there’s no shortage of announcements of new and interesting stuff in the Toronto area. Here are a few from the inbox. Next week, there’s a premiere of David Warrack’s oratorio Abraham. It’s a multi-faith event in aid of the Syrian Refugee Program at Metropolitan United Church. It’s on Wednesday, October 28th at 8 p.m. at Metropolitan United Church, 56 Queen Street East, Toronto. Richard Margison stars as Abraham and joining him are five principal vocalists; Ramona Carmelly, Meredith Hall, Hussein Janmohamed, George Krissa and Theresa Tova, three choirs: the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Jarrahi Sufi Choir with Whirling Dervishes,and the Bach Children’s Chorus David Warrack will be at the piano. Whirling Dervishes? Get in! It’s a good cause. General admission tickets are $54; $36 for students. $75 VIP tickets offer reserved seating and an invitation to the post-concert reception. Tickets and more information at www.abrahamoratorio.ca. Continue reading
Last night at Roy Thomson Hall Barbara Hannigan made her North American conducting debut with the TSO. And, of course, she sang too. She kicked off with Luigi Nono’s Djamila Boupacha for solo voice. It’s a short but haunting piece inspired by a woman activist from the Algerian War. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a solo, unaccompanied, voice in that hall and the effect is eerie. It’s also a hell of a sing and to navigate it with utter precision is quite some feat. As the last note died away (precisely on pitch) the violins came in with the opening Haydn’s Symphony no. 49 “La Passione”. It starts off with an Adagio that’s curiously similar in mood to the Nono piece and Hannigan was conducting without score or baton. In fact it was more like an interpretive dance than conventional conducting. She has amazing arms and hands; the arms and hands of a ballerina in fact and as she summoned the strings to a sort of shimmering sound I couldn’t help but reminded of Swan Lake. Corny perhaps but very real and quite disturbing. And the orchestra, quite a small subset of the TSO, responded. This was four movements of really lovely, chamber music like playing.
There are a couple of biggies coming up next week. On October 7th and 8th the amazingly talented and apparently fearless Barbara Hannigan is singing with and conducting the TSO. For all I know she’ll be tap dancing and doing hand stands as well. It’s her conducting debut with this orchestra. The programme features works by Nono, Haydn, Mozart, Ligeti and Stravinsky. 8pm Roy Thomson Hall.
Mahler’s Symphony No.2 in C Minor “Resurrection” is a massive beast using multiple percussionists, a very large brass section (who rather disconcertingly troop on and off stage multiple times), choir and two vocal soloists and it lasts an hour and a half. It’s also a very peculiar animal emotionally; combining almost naive folk dance tunes with passages of haunting beauty and extreme bombast. Last night, in the second of two performances at Roy Thomson Hall, Peter Oundjian and the TSO give it a spectacularly unrestrained performance.
It’s that time of year when the musical calendar kind of grinds almost to a halt in Toronto. Looking ahead to June there’s not a whole lot on offer, at least in the opera/choral/artsong departments. The big event is Against the Grain’s Death and Desire show, of which I saw the first half previewed in the RBA. It’s on at the Neubacher Shor Gallery (Queen and Dufferin) on June 2nd to 5th at 8pm. Tickets are going fast so if you plan to go, head here soon. There’s a Mahler 2nd (Resurrection) Symphony at the TSO on June 10th (8pm) and 12th(7.30pm). Erin Wall, Susan Platts and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir will join the orchestra with Peter Oudjian conducting. Then it’s Luminato. The big deal for opera fans here is R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis. David Fallis will direct what sounds like a Cecil B. DeMille scale extravaganza. It’s at the Sony Centre on June 26th and 27th (8pm) and the 28th (2pm). At your own risk…
It’s forty years since Sir Andrew Davis first conducted the TSO and to celebrate the fact the TSO programmed a run of Verdi Requiems with Sir Andrew conducting. I caught the last performance last night. It’s in some ways a curious piece; very operatic and not especially liturgical but it does have its subtleties; the very quiet opening and the tenor solo Ingemisco for example but there’s also some moments of drama that are far from subtle. The Dies irae is appropriately loud, even terrifying and it’s used as an accent before the Lacrymosa and during the Libera me. It’s quite a compelling 90 minutes or so.
operaramblings 