Media Reviews
TSO lets the choirs sing
JOHN TERAUDS
Toronto Star - Toronto, Ont.
Sept 21, 2007
It is ironic that the hundreds of people arrayed on and around the stage Wednesday night to launch the Toronto Symphony Orchestra music season at Roy Thomson Hall did themselves proud with famous pieces of music that made their composers richer, but not proud.
German composer, musicologist and educator Carl Orff (1895-1982) will forever be remembered for Carmina Burana. It is a collection of verses culled from 12th- and 13th-century Germany that celebrate the power fate, love and collective revelry that he set in 1936 to a rhythmically driven score for orchestra, three soloists and large choir of adults and children. The work's 60 minutes run the gamut of human experience and emotion.
Largely because of the music's surface simplicity, it actually demands a sure hand from the conductor and tremendous confidence from everyone else onstage.
Done with verve and assurance, Carmina Burana will carry away even the most jaded listener. Toronto Symphony music director Peter Oundjian, back for his fourth season, added a layer of voluptuousness to the score that turned it into a sensual delight.
Often, Oundjian's tempos were slower than what we're used to hearing on disc, but there was so much more to savour along the way.
Although the performance wasn't perfect, it was as good as a live event is likely to get. The orchestra sounded terrific, Noel Edison's Mendelssohn Choir was typically balanced and precise, while Ann Cooper Gay's remarkable 85-member children's chorus sang as one.
Best of all, the soloists were a treat. Special accolades go to the dynamic show put on by baritone Hugh Russell. Countertenor Daniel Taylor and soprano Simona Saturova were strong assets, as well.
All sang as if they were fully engaged with everyone else onstage.
Maurice Ravel's infamous 1928 Bolero is another one of those magically simple pieces that, performed well, will grab you from the gut, even if you'd rather not listen to it. Oundjian shaped its loin-driven drive into a perfect arc, never losing sight of darker forces lurking under the sensuous melodic theme.
The program opened with a heartfelt tribute to the Canadian Opera Company's late head Richard Bradshaw, the "Prelude" to Act I of Wagner's opera Lohengrin.
CBC Radio Two recorded last night's performance for a later broadcast.
