Dave Richards, Toronto Concert Reviews

When I look at the TSO calendar of concerts at the start of the season, the first to be penciled into our calendar are invariably those that include the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. There is something extraordinary about the choral orchestral sounds that touches my soul like nothing else can. The stunning power and beauty of our fine orchestra takes me to another space when it is enveloped by the over-arching sopranos or pierced by the strength of the male voices.

Last night’s concert had an extra degree of ‘specialness’ (if that’s a word). Mozart’s Requiem in D minor K.626has been consistently close to my heart since I first fell in love with choral music in my first year of university. As I anticipated the concert there were several images running through my mind. I imagined I was in the room with Mozart and his friends on the day he died singing the Requiem at his bedside. In another image, Mozart’s widow Constanze was preparing a memorial service for him a year later with the Requiem at the centre of it. Still another image was that of Chopin’s funeral with several thousand in attendance and the famous Pauline Viardot singing the mezzo-soprano solo part. …

Interim Artistic Director Sir Andrew Davis led the choir and orchestra in a dramatic and power infused performance. There was intensity about his conducting that seemed to energize members of both the choir and orchestra. Conducting without a baton, he seemed to be communicating with his face and whole body as much with his arms and hands. One of the choir members related how efficient he was in rehearsal. One could see from the audience that he was looking for a performance that had vitality from beginning to end. I was on the edge of my seat with every note. The clarity of the choir in their melismatic running passages in the “Kyrie” was a tribute to the TMC’s Interim Conductor and Artistic Director David Fallis. The “Dies irae” came like an explosion at a tempo that tested the mettle of the strings who were more than up to the task. The most moving moments of the work for me came in the “Lacrimosa”, a gorgeously lyrical movement that ends with a cry of desperation in the line, “Dona eis requiem aeternam”.

Read the full review here.