Media

May 3, 2016

An experience of sonic excellence: New Ears respond to The Creation

2015-16 Season

At one point I began to imagine myself seated in the hull of Noah’s Ark instead of Koerner Hall with its beautiful wood-paneled balconies and ceiling and how I was being prepared for a world of such beauty and diversity, listening to the music. Haydn’s Creation was an experience of sonic excellence combining vocal soloists, choir and orchestra and at the same time a good opportunity to reflect on the natural beauty we’ve been afforded and should not take for granted.

April 30, 2016

Choral Splendor Marks TMC’s The Creation at Koerner Hall

2015-16 Season

Joseph So, Musical Toronto. One of the cornerstones of the oratorio repertoire, Haydn’s The Creation (Die Schöpfung) is a wonderful work that I never get tired of hearing. Together with Die Jahreszeiten, it’s two pieces on my short list of go-to oratorios if I ever want a “spiritual uplift.” So it was great to hear it again the other evening at Koerner Hall.

April 29, 2016

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir spectacular in Haydn’s Creation

2015-16 Season

David Richards, Ontario Arts Review. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir created an evening of spectacular bliss. Noel Edison successfully highlighted the drama and humour in the work with uplifting results. He created a symphonic sound of magnificent proportions with the 135 voice choir and the Festival Orchestra.

April 6, 2016

The Creation Program Notes

2015-16 Season

The opening orchestral introduction, called “The Representation of Chaos” is famous. Haydn paints the dark, frightening void just prior to creation by using snippets of melody, vague rhythms, strange harmonies, awkward dissonances and sudden outbursts. “There is nothing else quite like it,” claims Noel Edison. “It’s the Big Bang expressed in music, and was way ahead of its time!”

March 30, 2016

Transported: New Ears Respond to Sacred Music in a Sacred Space

2015-16 Season

As a first time choral concert-goer, I truly did not know what to expect walking into St. Paul’s Basilica that Wednesday evening. I was immediately taken aback by the beauty of the church, however it was soon taking second seat to the beautiful music of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

March 26, 2016

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Soars!

2015-16 Season

David Richards, Ontario Arts Review.

Good Friday at St. Paul’s Catholic Church was the perfect day and place for a concert by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. The choir made wonderful use of the church’s magnificent acoustics, not to mention the elaborately decorated sanctuary. The concert of sacred music in such beautiful surroundings, on this special day, made the spirits soar. If Good Friday was meant to send a message of peace, hope and love to mankind, then the Mendelssohn Choir was an inspirational messenger.

March 3, 2016

Composer’s Commentary on I will lift up mine eyes

2015-16 Season

Leonard Enns writes of his TMC commission, I will lift up mine eyes: Psalm 121 is typically read, and often set musically, as a text of assurance and comfort. My setting is similar in that regard. What I find compelling, though, is the second phrase of the psalm: “from whence commeth my help (?).” Many musical settings treat the phrase “from whence cometh my help” simply as a modifier (no question mark); i.e. “… the hills from whence cometh my help” (take, for example, Mendelssohn’s “Lift thine eyes”). Most current translations, however, treat it as a question.

March 1, 2016

Sacred Music for a Sacred Space 2016 Program Notes

2015-16 Season

Artistic Director Noel Edison has always enjoyed the combination of Renaissance with contemporary music in a concert program. For him, it’s the similarity between the openness and simplicity of the structure of these compositions that works so well together.

January 6, 2016

TMC announces conductors for 2016 Choral Conductors Symposium

2015-16 Season

Five conductors from across North America have been selected to participate in the TMC’s sixth annual Choral Conductors’ Symposium (Jan 26-30, 2016), led by conductor and artistic director Noel Edison. Conductors will work with Noel and with the Elora Festival Singers and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir on a variety of choral music for chamber and large-scale ensembles, including works by composers from Palestrina, Mendelssohn and Elgar to Britten, Pärt and Corlis.