Media
Media Room
December 16, 2016
Messiah watch
2016-17 Season
Arthur Kaptainis, Montreal Gazette. Messiah watch: There was a time when I offered a ritual recommendation of the 1987 EMI Toronto Symphony/Toronto Mendelssohn Choir recording of Handel’s oratorio under Andrew Davis, which even at the time was swimming against the historicist flow by using fairly large forces. Now the British conductor has created a recording of his own “new concert edition,” which applies all manner of modern instrumental accoutrements to the masterpiece, marimba not excluded. Again the TSO and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir are the ensembles. The label is Chandos. I am sure Sir Andrew would agree that this should not be the only Messiah on your shelves. Certainly, it has its striking and high-spirited moments, but I find it rather like a walk through the toy department.
December 16, 2016
Here We Come A-Caroling: Choirs and carols across the region
2016-17 Season
Brian Chang, The Wholenote. Carols are unique to the holiday season. At this time of year, they’re on the radio, humming in the back of our heads, in the malls as we shop, and often on the street being sung or played by musicians across the city. These ubiquitous songs cover every emotion possible: sad, happy, joyful, peaceful, funny, odd, and so much more. And it’s a challenging thing to program carols; people want to sing, people want to participate. Many choirs do just that and invite you to sing along! In the smattering of concerts I’ve attended and performed in the last few days, communal singing has featured quite heavily. And why not! It’s fun, joyous—and how often can you find a venue with 1000 people singing?
December 15, 2016
Enjoy TSO’s take on Messiah in the comfort of your own home
2016-17 Season
Brad Wheeler, The Globe and Mail. Captured live in December, 2015 (Sir Andrew Davis’s reimagined Messiah), the recording features soloists Erin Wall, Elizabeth DeShong, Andrew Staples and John Relyea, along with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. And while this second-coming album affords you the luxury to bust out your hallelujahs in the comfort of your own living room, automobile or wherever, there’s nothing like witnessing the Messiah in person.
December 13, 2016
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir announces conductors for 2017 Choral Conductors’ Symposium
2016-17 Season
Five conductors from across North America have been selected to participate in the TMC’s seventh annual Choral Conductors’ Symposium (Jan 24-28, 2017), led by conductor and artistic director Noel Edison. Conductors will work with Noel and with the Elora Singers and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir on a variety of choral music for chamber and large-scale ensembles, including works by composers from Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn to a number of contemporary Canadian works, including Leonard Cohen’s iconic Hallelujah.
December 10, 2016
Daily Telegraph Review: Messiah CD
2016-17 Season
Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph. Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, Chandos. 5 stars … “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” and “All We Like Sheep” are highlights, sung by the superb 150-strong Toronto Mendelssohn Choir with a fugal exhilaration that doesn’t preclude exemplary diction and precision. They are the starts of the show, but all four soloists are excellent too.
December 7, 2016
Messiah Follies: Inside Stories About Performing Handel’s Ultimate Masterpiece
2016-17 Season
Brian Chang, Musical Toronto. Handel’s Messiah is a masterwork of remarkable writing that has lasted centuries of performance. This work is a staple of the Holiday season, and chances are you will catch a performance of it in full or selections from it over the course of the holiday. Between the Toronto Symphony Orchestra/Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra/Tafelmusik Chamber Choir alone, 15,000 people will hear and experience the music over a two week period.
Much can be said about the love-hate relationship of Choristers, musicians, and conductors and the work. Today, we’re going to explore stories of musicians who have performed the work and when things have just gone off the rails. These are stories of Messiah Follies.
December 6, 2016
The Wholenote Discoveries: Review of Handel Messiah Chandos Recording
2016-17 Season
David Olds, The Wholenote December 2016 review of Chandos recording of Handel Messiah: this new recording does the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and, indeed, Toronto itself proud.
December 3, 2016
“What Grace is Given Me”: Performance and Process for Toronto’s The Lord of the Rings
2016-17 Season
Brian Chang, The Wholenote: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in Canada on December 19, 2001. That year I started high school and it was the first time I took a music class in a real music program. That Christmas, one of my friends gave me the soundtrack for the movie. I fell in love with it and have loved it ever since. For me, my entire musical history has been inspired and shaped by this soundtrack. With “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring In Concert” at Roy Thomson Hall, December 1 to 3 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, I’ve been able to perform the film’s music onstage as a chorister. It has been one of the greatest privileges of my life as a musician.
December 3, 2016
Shore’s Fellowship
2016-17 Season
Leslie Barcza, barczablog: The Toronto Symphony, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, The Canadian Children’s Opera Company in partnership with tiff presented a concert performance of Howard Shore’s score for The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of Peter Jackson’s Tolkien films. If you think that sounds like a lot of people, you’d be right, and that’s not even including the big-screen presentation of the film, with its cast of thousands of humans, orcs, elves, dwarves, hobbits, uruk-hai, and assorted birds. Considering that I consider the first film to be the weakest of the three, I did not expect such an overwhelming experience, and am a little gaga imagining what the other two might be like, in a live concert version.