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December 18, 2012
Toronto Symphony makes Messiah magic at Roy Thomson Hall
2012-13 Season
There was an audible, palpable buzz in the air after Tuesday evening’s first Toronto Symphony Orchestra performance of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. It was like going home after a pop concert.
December 15, 2012
Hallelujah, it’s the Messiah: Choristers love to sing Handel’s oratorio
2012-13 Season
George Frideric Handel’s 1742 composition, the story of the prophecy, birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ, is a Christmas staple around the world and a steadfast Toronto tradition. Originally written as Easter music, it is performed here at this time of year by many choirs including Tafelmusik, Amadeus Choir, Elmer Iseler Singers, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and many church groups.
The 150-voice Mendelssohn Choir sings a five-concert series of the Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall beginning Tuesday, Dec. 18.
November 15, 2012
Mendelssohn Choir’s Carmina Burana Rocks Koerner Hall
2012-13 Season
The raw power of Karl Orff’s popular masterpiece, Carmina Burana, made me ecstatic the first time I heard it on record quite a few years ago. Last night’s performance at Koerner Hall by the Toronto Mendelssohn choir brought back that thrill and then some.
November 14, 2012
Carmina Burana Program Notes
2012-13 Season
The British composer Jonathan Dove (b. 1959) has composed in a variety of fields, including film scores, orchestral and chamber music and choral music, but he’s maybe best known for his operas and opera adaptations. As well as The Adventures of Pinocchio and Mansfield Park, based on the novel by Jane Austen, Dove has also created a two-evening chamber adaptation of The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner.
November 14, 2012
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir vividly reminded its Koerner Hall audience on Tuesday night why Carmina Burana is one of the hits of 20th century music.
2012-13 Season
Artistic director and conductor Noel Edison led a performance of Orff’s arrangement for two pianos and percussion, providing all the rhythmic force this composition needs, while softening the sound a bit at times with the rich harmonies of two concert grand pianos in their full glory.
November 13, 2012
Preview: Carmina Burana makes for vivid night of Toronto Mendelssohn Choir song at Koerner Hall
2012-13 Season
If Tuesday night’s dress rehearsal is any indication, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s Wednesday performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana should make for a powerful evening of music.
The music from the most popular piece ever written by German composer Carl Orff (1895-1982) has been used in film and television and all sorts of advertising because of its raw power. Today, 75 years after its premiere in Frankfurt, Orff’s collection of 24 songs and poems found in a Benedictine abbey still packs a visceral punch.
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s performance, the latest of many over its long history, added the beauty of three excellent soloists, some wonderfully subtle shaping by conductor and artistic director Noel Edison, and a nicely executed accompaniment by pianists James Bourne and Michel Ross as well as the TorQ Percussion Quartet.
November 2, 2012
TSO polishes Spanish Operatic Gem to perfection
2012-13 Season
Through all the conventions of the modern symphony-going experience – the frantic drive through downtown traffic, the last-minute rush to the washrooms, the musicians filing on stage dressed for a funeral, the rustling, coughing cacophony – through all this, art broke through. The real thing. Like a brilliant burst of the sun – warm, bright, exhilarating. Doesn’t happen all the time.
November 2, 2012
La vida breve review: Opera packs a lot of red-blooded emotion
2012-13 Season
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra was on fire — as were its many guests, including a substantial contingent from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.
November 1, 2012
Concert review: Toronto Symphony makes fiery work of Manuel de Falla’s opera La vida breve
2012-13 Season
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra was on fire — as were its many guests, including a substantial contingent from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.